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SERMONS.'^n 




BY THE 



REV. CHARLES MINNIGERODE, D. D., 

RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. 





RICHMOND: 

WOODHOUSE & Par HAM 

1880. 



Copyrighted 1880 
By Charles Minxigerode, Richmond, Va. 



PRINTED BY BAUGHMAN BROTHERS, 
RICHMOND, VA. 



PREFACE. 



This volume is published at the earnest request and 
by the kindness of a few members of my congregation. 
In the selection of the sermons, I have been guided in 
part by the wishes of my friends. They are sent forth 
in the humble hope, that in them one more testimony 
is published to the truth of the Gospel and the blessed 
revelation of Christ and Him crucified. 



Owing to the fact that I insisted upon being my own 
corrector of the proof-sheets, a few errors have re- 
mained in these pages. The following list contains the 
few which might interfere with the thorough under- 
standing of the text : 



ERRATA. 

Page 22, line twenty-two, degradations, read degradation. 
Page 56, line eleven, apostles^ read A post.' e. 
Page 63, lines four and eleven, one, read One. 
Page 69, line penultimate, ivi7noral, read ivunortal. 
Page 80. line two, ''All this,'' read ''Ail this is thine!"' 
Page 120, line fifteen, punctuate manifestations, But^'* kc, 
line eighteen, '' ozir creed: a true,'' &c. 
Page 147, line eighteen, over, read even. 
Page 283, line eleven, " inate^'' read '' innate,'' 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

I. The All of Man 1-14 

" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall 
be; and that which is done, Is that which shall be 
done; and there is no new thing under the sun." — 
Ecclesiastes i. 9. 

II. What Shall It Proflf ? .... 15-26 

" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul V'—3Iark viii. 86. 

IIL What Then? ....... 25-43 

*'And he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed, 
I am not the Christ, And they asked him, What 
then?"— Jo Tin 1. 20, 21. 

IV. The Name of Christian .... 44-60 

The Disciples were called Christians first at Anti- 
och..''— Acts xi, 26. 

V. The Bread of Life . . . . ' . 61-75 

" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of G-od."— 
}£attheiv iv. 4. 

VI. Forbidden Fruit . . . . . . 76-89 

"In the day that fchou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
surely die."— Genesis ii. 17. 

VII. Weighed in the Balances . . . . 90-104 

'*Tekel— thou art weighed in the balances, and art 
found wanting."— 7)a?i/6Z v. 27. 

VIII. Repent 1 04-1 18 

*'The times of this ignorance God winked at, but 
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." — 
Acts XYii. ^0. 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



IX. No God . . 1 19-138 

" The fool hath said in his heart, there isno God."— 
Fsalms xiy. 1. 

X. Fruits . . 139-153 

"What frait had ye then in those things, whereof 
ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is 
death."— ito??2a?zs vi. 21. 

XI. Satisfied . . . . . . . 154-166 

"I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy like- 
ness."— Psa??7?s xvii. 15. 

XII. Press Toward the Mark . . . '. 167-180 

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehend- 
ed : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
FhiUppian§ iii. 13, 14. 

XIII. Count the Cost 1 81-195 

" Which of you intending to build a tower sitteth 
not down first and counteth the cost, whether he 
hare sufficient to finish it V— Luke xiv. 28. 

XIV. Lost by Hope 196-208 

" We are saved by hope."— i?o?«a?is viii. 24. 

XV. Perfecting Holiness 209-223 

Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, 
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh 
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,"— 
II. Corinthians vii. 1. 

XVI. God's Saving and Ours .... 224-238 

"I am thine— save me.''— Psalms cxix. 94. 

" Work out your own salvation ! ''—Philippians ii. 12. 

XVII. Obedience 239-252 

" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do iV—John ii. 5, 



CONTEXTS. 



Vll 



XVII r. Two Masters 253-265 

" Xo n-ian can serve two masters.'"— Jt/afZ/z^"?/- vi. 24. 

XIX. God's Holy Temple 266-2S0 

" The Lord is in his holy temple."— -F^a/m.? xi. 4.— 
Habakkiik ii. 20. 

XX. The Inxarxatiox 281-301 

"God, who, at sundry times and in diverse man- 
ners, spake in times past nnio the fathers by the pro- 
phets, has, in these last days, spoken to us by His 
Son." — Hebrews i. 1. 2. 

XXI. Communion Sermon . . . . . 302-311 

" What have I to do any more with idols? ''—Hosea 
xiv. 8. 



A 



SERMONS. 



The thing that hath heeii^ it is that whicli shall be ; and 
that which is done^ is that which shall be done ; and the7^e 
is no new thing tender the sun. 

ECCLES. i. 9. 

The Book from which the text is taken is one of 
peculiar and painful interest. There is a voice of 
wailing passing through its leaves, a key-note of sad- 
ness intonating its every strain. It is the recantation 
of the wisest among men, of the follies and errors 
into which the supposed greatness and hoped for 
satisfaction of this world had led him. And in the 
sadness which seems to dim his eye, as he glances 
over his past life and finds all his gains a blank; in 
the sorrow which I fancy thickens the voice of the 
Royal Preacher, as he contrasts the eager pursuits 
and dazzling scenes of his former life with the lesson 
of disappointment and sense of vacancy they left 
behind, I find a depth of poetry which is akin to the 
elegiac pathos of the Romance. The melancholy 
which breathes through the pages of the great Scot- 
tish Poet, and which gives them' that power of fas- 
cination with w^hich it entranced our youthful im- 

(I) 



2 



SERMONS. 



agination , arises from the consciousness of the writer 
that he dwells on men and times which are gone 
and can never return; from the longing of his mind 
to flee from the empty present, and relieve its prosy 
reality with the reproduction of the heroic forms 
of the Crusaders , or the sacrifices of chivalrous loy- 
alty in the death-struggle of the house of Stuart. 
Wonderful and mysterious is the poAver with which 
the reputed poems of Ossian move us : but that power 
lies less in the words we read, than in the image they 
bring to our minds of the desolate son of Fingal, 
the last of his race, striking his loneh' harp and 
chanting the requiem over the loved forms and the 
days of glory that had passed with the mighty dead 
of his family : and which in its native wildness comes 
to us like the echo of the wind that si^-hed over 

o 

their resting-place, and swept through the fir-trees 
that shaded them, as throuo-h o;icrantic strinc^s of the 
^eolian harp. 

But a greater than a poet is here: the sage of 
Juda, the great king of Israel, who had lived what 
others could but sing of When I read this Book, 
and see the monarch, in whom dwelt all the fulness 
of earthly majesty, leave his throne : see the philos- 
opher, who surpassed by his wise sayings all the 
children of men, turn from his books; see the pos- 
sessor of wealth which Ophir poured into his lap and- 



THE ALL OF MAN. 



3 



the ships of Tarshish brought to his treasury, fam- 
ished mid golden dust; see the man that had ex- 
Tiausted all the sources of earthlv iov, and tasted 
eveiy human pleasure, sickened with disappoint- 
ment; when I see Solomon, the great, the admired, 
the wise and prosperous, look over the monuments 
of his brilliant career, and write upon them, all, upon 
his throne and regal power, his life-long labours, 
his riches and his untold pleasures — ''Vanity 1 van- 
ity of vanities! all is vanity! I"' I learn that here I 
have more than a fleeting poem — an epitaph on all 
human greatness ; more than the plaintive cry of 
farewell — a lamentation over the vanity of every 
earthly pursuit: more than vain regrets over the 
past — the stern lesson of a life, whose reality sur- 
passed the wonders of fiction : that all that this earth 
can give does not minister satisfaction to the im- 
mortal soul; but that, having roamed through every 
department of human life, and climbed every height 
of human grandeur, and searched every depth of 
human wisdom, and ransacked every means of hu- 
man enjo\'ment, he finds them all a weariness and 
vexation of spirit, and learns that godliness alone, 
that religion alone, can speak peace, and give lasting 
satisfaction to the restless and aspiring heart: that 
the whole matter, tlie all of man ^ is to " fear God and 
keep his commandments. " '' For God shall bring 



4 



SERMONS. 



every work into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 

In truth I never read this Book, but I hear the 
accompaniment of the spirit's voice, which now 
whispers to me with affectionate soHcitude, '^Love 
not the world, nor the things that are in the world," 
and again, with the deep notes of warning, as with 
a funeral knell, breaks on my ear: ''Be ye also 
ready; for in such an hour as ye think not. the Son 
of Man Cometh.'' 

The epitome of the wise man's experience is con- 
tained in the words of the text — ^'The thing that 
hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which 
is done is that which shall be done; and there is no 
new thing under the sun." 

7,—" TJie tiling that hath been, it is that zuhich 
shall ber 

Life is the same it has ever been, and always will 
be, and its experience is the same. Even the prac- 
tical unbelief in this truism, of which we all are 
guilty, attests its universality. The delusion of life 
consists in its promise of happiness and satisfaction, 
with which it charms the natural man into its bond- 
age — at last to pay him off with disappointment! It 
ever conjures up some phantom Avhich he pursues 
and never reaches; or, if he reaches it, finds that like 
Ixion, he embraced a shadow I In vain that past 



THE ALL OF MAN. 



5 



experience teaches this lesson. In vain that the 
world with one voice attests the instability and dc- 
ceitfulness of earthly hopes; that they who have 
reached the goal proclaim in mournful tones that 
it was not worth the race. Alan clings to the delu- 
sion, and foolishly hopes that, whatever be the expe- 
rience of others, he shall obtain its promises. There 
is not a child in our families here present but fancies- 
that as soon as he shall arrive at a certain stature he 
shall enjoy more pleasure than he has enjoyed in his 
childhood. And there is not a man of years before 
me but looks back to the days of his childhood as 
the only season of paradisical happiness which has- 
fallen to his lot. The youth aspires to a settled life ; 
the active man to obtain, after labour and toil, a state 
of rest and satisfaction ; but the lesson must be 
learned by all, that rest belongs not to the present 
moment, and satisfaction does not crown their" 
earthly aspirations ! 

" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall 
be !" The experience of man is the same now as it 
was in the days of the Psalmist ; his " life is labour 
and sorrow, so soon passeth it away and we are 
gone." And, standing amidst the wreck of all his 
hopes and aspirations, amidst the joys which in vain 
he had sought to taste, the broken toys with which 
in vain he had tried to cheat himself into happiness,. 



6 



SERMONS. 



he repeats the despairing cry of the preacher : Van- 
ity ! all is vanity and vexation of spirit !" 

I have seen the young man, buoyant with hopes, 
and his heart swelling with proud aspirations. But 
before they could ripen into fruit, or even open into 
the blossom, the blight of this life had fallen upon 
them, and desolation seized his soul! How many of 
your hopes have been realized? How many of your 
fondest desires cro\\'ned with success? How many 
of your loftiest flights succeeded, your sternest re- 
solves been carried cut? Who is there among you, 
young or old, who stand precisely where they ex- 
pected to stand, to whom life has brought what they 
asked for and sought after? Who, am.ong those 
who have reached the years of manhood, had not 
to come down from the pinnacle of bliss and glory, 
which in younger years they fancied they were 
climbing, and which their youthful dreams had held 
up to their imagination, and been forced to content 
themselves with the beq-c^arlv crifts of real life ? 

I have seen the student go with thirsting soul to 
the fountains of knowledge, and pore day and night 
over the volumes of ancient lore, and labour hard to 
master the mvsteries of science. I looked ao;ain, 
and saw him vainly slake his thirst in the muddy 
streams of error and hopeless speculation, and the 
WTinkles on his brow attested that in much wis- 



THE ALL OF MAX. 



7 



dom there is much grief," and that ''he that increas- 
eth knowledge increaseth sorrow I'*' 

I have seen the warrior, bearing the banner of 
victory from land to land. I looked again, and saw 
him, Alexander-like, weep that he had no more 
worlds to conquer; or, bound to a sea-girt St. Hel- 
ena, chafe in his exile, and mourn over the passing 
nature of all earthly glory I 

I have seen the monarch, glorying in regal pride^ 
and courtiers bowing lowly, and nations taxed for 
his pleasure. I looked again, and saw him tremble 
on the throne, the Damocles sword suspended over 
him ; or saw him, a fugitive, banished from his home, 
and ''none so poor as to do him reverence 

I have seen the statesman, rising on the tide of 
popular favor, and seize the highest honors of. the 
country. I looked again, and saw how cares had 
followed him ; or saw him dashed from his lofty 
position by the first storm that turned the fickle 
multitude. 

I passed the stately mansion, gorgeous with wealth 
and replete with all that can charm the eye and please 
the taste, and minister comfort. I entered, and saw 
its owner stretched on the bed of lingering, and 
envying the poor at his door for one hour of health,, 
and a portion of his strength. 

I have seen the rich who trusted in his riches^ 



s 



SERMONS. 



with treasures in his possession that could have re- 
heved a starving multitude, with gold at his com- 
mand that crowded his house with flatterers, and 
made him the idol of hungry dependants. I looked 
again, and the riches had made themselves wings 
and were gone ; or the craven wretch was watching 
his coffers with the line of care upon his brow, and 
fear in his eye ; or, starving amidst his hoarded 
wealth, still thirsting for more, and cry "give, give!" 

I have tasted the joys of earth, and seen the gay 
and the reveller. I looked again, and in that wan 
form, and ennui of life, I saw that this too is vanity! 

I have visited the family circle, and seen the 
peaceful fireside, and the children like olive branches 
wreathing the table. I looked again, and there was 
the vacant chair, that told the story of that stifled 
sob and those weeping eyes. 

I looked upon beauty, and a few summers dim- 
med the radiant eye, and faded the blushing roses. 
I have looked upon youth, and I saw the spoiler 
drawing near, steadily, certainly, to break its strength 
and extinguish its glow. 

I have looked upon life in all its forms — like a 
splendid phantasmagoria it passed before my eye — 
but all its moments are fleeting, all its glory pass- 
ing away !" In the experience of the past we have 
the horoscope of the future. Six thousand years 



THE ALL OF MAN. 



9 



have taught us that the thing that has been, it is 
that which shall be." 

II. Ah, life is indeed a phantasmagoria. We scarce- 
ly view it but it passes away; passes away, brethren, 
into an endless future. Its shadows recede, and give 
way to the realities of eternity ! But that eternity 
of the creature begins here, and its law is written in 
our text : ''that which is done, is that which shall 
be done;" what is done hers shall be done there, 

''Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." " He that soweth to the flesh shall of the 
flesh reap corruption ; and he that soweth to the 
spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." As 
certain as the crop of the husbandman will be of the 
seed he has put in the ground, so shall man, when 
once put under the green sod of God's acre, grow 
up in eternity, the same in tendencies, desires, 
thoughts. 

The same ? Yet not the same ! For in this new 
existence, when the living soul is less confined by 
the narrow limits, and less weic^hed down bv the 
heavy material of this earthly body; when the flight 
of his thoughts, and the impetuosity of his desires 
are less checked by the disturbances and fluctua- 
tions, less broken by the attractions and repulsions 
of this abode of change and unsteadiness; his feel- 
ings, thoughts, affections, will be raised to an infi- 



10 



SERMONS. 



iiite power, and carry with them their inherent 
rewards of happiness or misery, as with an almighty 
force. All holy affections, all kind and charitable 
feelings, will enlarge themselves without bounds to 
make us meet companions for Him who is perfect 
Himself, and calls His creatures to perfection. The 
modest bud of peace and joy below will open into 
the full bloom of celestial blessedness ! But the 
embers of sin, if not quenched in this life, will be 
kindled into flames, ever strengthening in their 
overpowering sway, ever increasing in the torment 
they bring wjth them; yet never dying, never de- 
stroying. Lust and hatred and avarice, rising in 
greediness and vehemence, will find no object to lay 
their hands of destruction on, but the soul itself 
which submitted to their dominion here belovv^ 

Solemn truth : "The thing that is done is that 
w^hich shall be done." Oh, what a revelation of 
Eternity! Are you prepared, my un-Christian bro- 
ther, to have your slavery to ambitious aims con- 
tinued in the world to come, in a never-ceasing Sis- 
yphean labor ? To let the thirst for earthly pleasure 
place you, Tantalus-like, before the waters of rejoic- 
ing and the fruits of satisfaction, and yet to suffer 
the thirst and hunger of Eternity ! Ye who devote 
your all to the grovelling pursuits of time that never 
come to an end, are ye prepared "in the hereafter" 



THE ALL OF MAN. 



II 



to continue the fruitless labour, like the fabled 
daughters of Danaus, filling the bottomless urn with 
the draughts of refreshing? 

The happiness and perfection of the good will in- 
deed advance forever ; the wretchedness and down- 
fall of the wicked will go on forever, and may go on 
forever in an increasing ratio ! Ages of a heavenly 
existence open new and greater stores of beatitude; 
more glorious revelations of the Divine nature to 
the saints ; and the wrath of God endured for ages 
will still be wrath to come !" 

For that which is done, shall be done again. ' ' Here 
in this life are the premises and conditions of the 
life to come: ''Where the tree falleth, there it shall 
lie." *' He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; he 
which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; he that is 
righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is 
holy let him be holy still.'' 

And what — if this alternative is placed before him,, 
and such the issues of this life — what, then, are all 
the pains and sorrows of this transient state to him, 
who knows his home in heaven ! who lays up 
treasures there, and has the promise of Him who is 
faithful, and by faith receives even here the earnest 
of an inheritance which passeth not away? And 
what are all the pleasures, and all the enticements,, 
and the golden chains, with which sin surrounds and 



12 



SERMONS. 



binds us here, to him who looks beyond and has 
respect to the recompense of reward?" 
But oh, the unbeliever ! the ungodly ! Like that 
pale, that unhappy poet of our land — whose every 
hope was in the past, and whose presence bore no 
flower of happiness ; who vainly sought nepenthe 
for his sufferings; ''whom unmerciful disaster fol- 
lowed fast and followed faster," till his song one 
burden bore, — 

'•Till the dirges of his hope cfiie melancholy burden bore 
Of never — nevermore I" 

whose nicrhtlvvision was disturbed bv the croakino- 
voice of the bird of destiny which answered to all 
his pleas, the hopeless word of nevcnnore — like 
him he vainlv asks of his o-ods : 

^ o 

" Tell me truly, I implore, — 
Is there, is there balm in Gilead ? tell me, tell me, 
I implore I"" — 

But the echo returns onh- the raven's bitter cry of 
*' nevermore !" 

III. Alas, brethren, ''there is no neiv tiling nnder 
tJie sun f This earth, Antaeus-like, cannot revive 
your strength : there is no power under the sun 
which can restore \'ou to that bliss which must be 
sought without sin ! All your schemes of reform,, 
all your proud resolutions cannot raise you into 
God's favor. All your sacrifices, all your rites, all 



THE ALL OF MAN. 



13 



your superstitions, all your charities, cannot restore 
in you the image of God, and change the cursed 
ground into an Eden ! There is no stream that purls 
up from the earth in which to Avash our sins away, 
and draw draughts of renewal: ''there is no new 
thing under the sun." There is no salvation ! — un- 
less from above the sun, from the Father of Light, 
from the fountains of the upper sanctuary, flows 
down upon you the flood of healing, the stream of 
salvation ! unless God Himself bares His holy arm 
to bring life and immortality to light ; unless you 
are born again of the spirit, unless a new heart is 
given you, through the grace of Christ ! 

Oh, that I had the power of speech, and the gift 
of persuasion I Oh, that the angel of God would 
touch my lips, and give me words of fire ! Believe 
me ; believe one who has as vile a heart, and pas- 
sions strong as yours ; one who has roamed far and 
wide to satisfy the yearnings of a selfish and unsub- 
dued spirit; who has drunk deep of the cup of life, 
and tasted its sorrows and its delights ; one Avho has 
too m^any recollections left him of the world not to 
understand its fashion and the power of its influ- 
ence : and yet has been taught the vanity of all, and 
the bitterness of his own heart. Believe me ; and, 
if you will not believe a fellow-sinner, believe Solo- 
mon, who rises above us in the knowledge of all 

(2) 



14 



SERMONS. 



that this world can give and bring, and the acquaint- 
ance with its every source of strens^th, and comfort, 
and pleasure, and happiness, as a Patagonian giant 
among mere pigmies ! And if you will not believe 
one that could fall as low as Solomon, believe one 
greater than Solomon :" one who was " holy, harm- 
less, undefiled and separate from sinners,'" — that 
there is no healing balm except in the Gospel ; that 
there is no peace except in Christ ; that the infinite 
yearnings and aspirations of man can never be satis- 
fied ; that his doubts, and the riddles of his earthly 
existence can never be solved ; that the fears of an 
awakened conscience can ne\'er be quieted, except 
in the religion of the Atonement : and that there is 
no happiness for man, no lasting joy and bliss and 
hope, but in the faith and love of Christ, in the pur- 
suit of holiness, and the obedience to the law of God. 

And may God have mercy upon you, that now, 
ere the evil days come, and the years draw nigh 
when ye shall say we have no pleasure in them,'' 
ye may learn the conclusion of the whole matter: — 

'*Fear God and keep His commandments, for this 
is the all of man. 

'' For God shall bring every work into judgment, 
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or 
whether it be evil !" 



WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT? 



15 



What shall it profit a ??ian if he gain the whole wo?id^ 
and lose his own soul ? 

Mark, viii, 36. 

This is a startling question, brethren, and start- 
ling the more as it is asked by Him who mjace both 
the world and the soul, and therefore is best able to 
judge of their relative worth. The manner of the 
question itself leaves no doubt on the mind which 
of the two God considers most valuable ; and by the 
sacrifice He made for the soul of man, He showed 
that He esteemed it above all else, and knew no 
other price for its worth but His own blood ! 

And all men know the worth of the soul well 
enough ; but they do not consider its worth suffi- 
ciently to let it influence their life I There is, in this 
respect, the same difterence which exists with regard- 
to every point of Religion — the difference between 
Knowledge and Wisdom, which is drawn occasion- 
ally in the Bible ; between theor}' and its practical 
application. iMen know enough of Christ and his 
redemption, but the\- do not possess the wisdom to 
act accordingly. You all know the worth of the 
soul ; may God give you the wisdom to act up to 
your knowledge. 



i6 



SERMONS. 



The Soul! Who can doubt its worth? "Show 
me the soul/' said a skeptic to me; ''let me see it^ 
that I may learn to value it, and know it is no mere 
phantomi of the brain ; no flattering unction falsely 
laid to the heart.'' Can inconsistency go farther? 
TJie So2il! It beams in that eye which is bent on 
you in love ; it lives in that hand which presses 
yours in affection ; it weeps those tears which are 
shed over your departed friend ; it soars in that 
thought which compasses the Universe, and reads 
the laws of the Creator ; it yearns for immortality 
in that uplifted countenance ; it dreams of a bliss, 
and dwells on a happiness for which this earth, and 
the clay in which it is shrouded on ear:h, give no 
satisfaction ; it seeks its equals in the realms above, 
and holds communion with beings as invisible to 
the natural eye as is its own essence ! 

Sliow vie its zuortJi ! The Creator but spake the 
word; and earth, fire, water, air, with their countless 
organizations, burst forth into existence from the 
womb of Nothing. But when God created man. He 
took counsel with Himself, in the recesses of the 
Holy Trinity, and said: ''Let us make man in our 
own image !" On the soul is impressed tlie hnage 
of God ! who is a Spirit, and can only be known 
and worshipped in spirit and in truth. SJiow vie its 
zvortJi ! Look upon the temple which God built it 



WHAT SHALL IT PROPTT ? 



17 



in the flesh, the noblest work of physical creation ; 
with the brow turned heavenward, and the stature 
erect, all symmetry, all beauty, such as shines in 
nothing else ! Rehearse its capacities, and see how 
it compasses the Universe, and moulds Nature to its 
will, and carves out for itself a way of life, and seeks 
a happiness to satisfy demands which cannot rise in 
inert matter ! Time does not exhaust its aspirations ; 
life does not set bounds to its desires ; it rises above 
the drudgery of flesh and blood, and seeks its kin- 
dred in the heavens ! It grasps the idea of God, and 
rises to the union and communion with the Deity ; 
it rises as on eagle's wings ; and in the conception 
of poets, the thoughts of philosophers, the acquire- 
ments of knowledge, gives proof of its heaven-born 
descent! It is enthroned above the visible crea- 
tion, the master of this globe, the measurer of the 
worlds above ; and all the treasures of the deep, all 
the glories of the firmament, all the wonders of 
science and literature, cannot satiate its appetite, or 
exhaust its powers. It demands eternity for its pro- 
gress, infinitude for its development ! 

It is tlie soul^ alone ^ brethren, which makes man 
what he is — a candidate fo7\eternity I and oh, either 
for eternal bliss, or eternal misery ! It is the treas- 
ure enclosed in the casket of flesh and blood, watched 
over by powerful spirits, whether for good or evil. 



i8 



SERMONS. 



Two worlds are contending for it, and offering their 
prices for its gain ! 

There is in this life a contest going on between 
the powers of Heaven and the powers of Hell. The 
object of contention is the soid of man. God stoops 
down from Heaven, and bids for the soul ; Satan, 
from beneath, offers his prices for the same. 

WJiosc offer zuill you- take ? 

Behold from His radiant throne, and the choirs 
of adoring angels, the Son of God descends, and 
pleads in accents of love : Give me thy soul! I have 
come for itto'earth, and borne the sufferings of the 
creature. I have borne the form of a servant, and 
poured out my blood in the death of ignominy, to 
purchase for it the glories of eternity and the favour 
of God, who is life ; and His loving kindness, which 
is better than life. Heaven is yours, and eternal joys, 
Avhich eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man to conceive, if 
you but give me your soul ! 

Oh, in love He pleads, in love which passeth un- 
derstanding ; and a price he offers, the worth of 
which eternity shall be too short to exhaust. Heaven 
for the soul ! Goci^s presence for the soul ! the love 
of a dying Redeemer and everliving Saviour for the 
soul ! The care and protection of Him in whom 



WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT ? 



19 



we live, and move, and have our being here below; 
support and strength in every trial, every warfare ; 
triumph over the adversary : victory over death and 
the grave, in the passage through the dark valley. 
Infinitude and ever-growing assimilation to the God- 
head, as we pass from the Church militant on earth 
to the Church triumphant in heaven : All for the 
soul ! Ah, brethren, God asks no sacrifice but of 
what would make the soul miserable and contempt- 
ible. He does not stint His gifts, and gives you for 
the soul, both the promise of the life that now is, 
and of that which is to come. Time and eternity 
unite their appeals to make you take the offer of 
your Lord, and trust your souls to Him ! 

What are the prices which the Tempter offers ? 
Ah, can he speak to you of eternity ? He never 
does ! for his eternity is one of wretchedness inde- 
scribable, where the worm never dieth, and the fire 
is not quenched ! Can he point you to future bliss 
and satisfaction? He never does ; his wisdom is to 
hide the future, and drop before it an impenetrable 
veil of present cares or joys. Tins life, its glory, its 
power, its wisdom, its lusts, are his all ; for beyond 
them nothing is found in his gift but Hell! This 
life, its glory, its powers, its wisdom, its lusts, are 
liis baits ; the prices he offers for the soul, that stays 
here but for a moment, and, before which the pres- 



20 



SERMONS. 



ent enjoyment flits by as a dream^ and if it leaves its 
mark, it is tlie sting of death ! 

This life is one great fair, where men's souls are 
bought and sold. The Church brings it life and 
salvation, and offers it without money and without 
price. The World — that great vanity fair — it offers 
it the baubles of the moment, the regrets and re- 
morse of an eternity. And still it bids for soids, and 
Sidls them to its cruel master. There is a constant 
bargaining of this kind going on ! There is not an 
ungodly pleasure, not an unrighteous gain, not an 
impure gratification, not a revengeful satisfaction^ 
/;/// tlie sours blood is paid for it ! 

The mind of man ever and anon wakes up to this 
truth : What are all the fictions which have come 
down to us from more imaginative ages, and now 
enchain the attention of the young in fairy tales and 
oriental stories : of men deeding away their souls 
for the purse that is never empty, the gratification of 
never-satiate lusts ? W^hat are thev but the musingfs 
of \'our own heart, its most hidden secrets and deep- 
est wishes, embodied, incarnated in the fascinating 
form of parabolical fiction ? Those legends about 
the adepts of the black art, the gold makers, or the 
lords of every pleasure, with evil spirits at their 
beck and call ; yet who with their blood signed 
away their soul to the adversary, and whose end 



WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT ? 



21 



was the end of despair, in the loathsome embraces 
of their former demon servants, and the torments of 
everlasting fire kindled by their busy agency : what 
are all, but illustrations of this truth, this actual, 
everpresent, experimiental truth : that man cannot 
give himself only to the pursuit of the wants, the 
pleasures and the cares of time, the power, wisdom, 
glory or shame of earth, without surrendering his 
soul to Him, in Avhose presence shall be misery for 
evermore ? Oh, that men's eyes were opened to 
see how, behind every unholy aspiration, every un- 
righteous transaction, every godless thought, every 
lustful indulgence, every act of cruelty or hatred, 
intemperance, or any wickedness, the Evil Spirit 
stands, ready to take the soul as his pay for all. 

And, brethren, look at his prices ! Religion and 
the favour of God will indeed insure you, not only 
the glories of eternity, but the real joys of earth. 
Industry will ever find its support, contentment be 
always rich, the peace of heart a source of never 
failing happiness, a conscience void of offence a 
tower of strength amidst all tiie trials of earth. But 
the wavs of the transgrressor, trulv thev are hard ! 
You ask wealth of this life, and the destroyer turns 
in its pursuit your thoughts from God and heaven, 
and thus ruins your soul ! but docs he give you 
wealth ? How many of those who are without 



22 



SERMONS. 



Christ have gotten wealth ? wealth to satisfy their 
wishes, the wants of their greedy nature ? Give ! 
give !" is the constant cry of the soul, its appeal to 
the king of the world. But, brethren, there are too 
many applicants for this glittering idol, and you 
must be satisfied with toiling for it in the sweat of 
your brow, and working for it ''from morn to noon, 
from noon to dewy eve," and take the paltry gain 
which scarcely supports existence. See how the 
devil pays ! Are any of you the richer for being 
without religion ? Any of you the better off on earth 
for having never bestowed a thought on heaven ? 

Behold the work is as hard and harder in the 
service of Satan, and his pay, even here— is all a 
fraud I 

You ask happiness, and seek it at the hands of 
the world, and court its fickle favours, or debase your- 
selves in its licentious orgies, and seek satisfaction 
for the thirst of your soul. And after you have 
roamed through all the haunts of pleasure, and 
drained the poisonous dregs of its brimming cup,, 
and walloAved in the mire of beastly degradations, 
are y OIL happy ? are you satisfied? Has the Devil 
kept his promise, when he bade you join his merry 
band, and tread the flowery path of vice ? You ask 
satisfaction^ lasting pleasure^ but, alas, in his service 
nought is lasting but misery and torment ; and sur- 



WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT? 



23 



feit and remorse follow up every pittance that he 
pays for your soul. 

It is fearful to think how many are thus deceived, 
how many are thus toiling in the bonds of iniquity. 
How many are ready to purchase a moment's im- 
perfect gratification with long, long hours of wretch- 
edness and remorse ; and consent to give up for 
such wages the hope of heaven ? 

Oh, when I see the young m.an madly turn from 
the lessons of early piety and godliness, and think 
it manly to throw himself into the ways and vices 
of a godless world ; when I see the acquirements of 
earth and time becomie its all to the aspiring mind, 
and the heaven-born crlorv of our nature deo-raded 
in the service of what cannot satisfy, and its streno;th 
wasted for that which must prove its ruin ; and when 
I think of the loving remonstrances which a father 
or mother may in vain address to them, the cease- 
less prayers of a Christian wife or sister, whose fer- 
vour has not yet been extinguished by repeated 
failures — a feeling of awe steals over me. It seems 
to me I see that soul under the hammer, and hear 
its reckless possessor offer it at auction to the high- 
est bidder. God offers, Christ offers, the Church 
bids, friends add their prayers. In vain ! The 
Devil seems to bid higher! One more gratification 
and the soul is going;" one more successful bar- 



24 



SERMONS. 



gain, and the soul is ''going;" one more promise 
of earthly lust and glory, and the soul is 'Agoing/' 
until, brethren, an invisible, almighty hand brings 
down the hammer — tlic liaimner of deatli ! and, as 
Avith the archangel's voice, the bargain is sealed for 
eternity- — o-one ! 

y o 

The silent grave hides its tale of woe. And others 
come up to the stand, and the auction of this life 
goes on ; and Hell is peopled with immortal souls 
for the wretched orices of sin, and lust, and o;reedi- 
ness! Oh, God! 

Brethren,^ let us follow that soul under the green 
sod ; let us learn the value of the soul from the ex- 
perience after death ! Ah, perhaps success smiled 
upon it on earth, and the bargains were pleasing, 
but what is its judgment then? I got a good situ- 
ation, or a good business — but lost my soul ! I made 
a large fortune — but lost my soul 1 I had many 
friends, but God is my enemy. I lived in pleasure, 
but now pain is my everlasting portion. I clothed 
my body gaily, but my soul is naked before God; 
its bed the lake of fire, its sheet the flame that is not 
quenched, its fellow the worm that never dieth I 

Let us go up and ask at the gate of Heaven ! ask 
the bright spirits in the presence of God, and hear 
what is of the greatest worth in all God's creation: 
and in language of adoring gratitude they say, tlie 



WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT? 



25 



soul ! Let us go to the gates of Hell, and ask the 
suffering demons — what is of the greatest worth in 
all God's creation? and with the howl of despair 
they cry, the soul ! Let us visit the graves of the 
dead, and call up their spirits, Dives and Lazarus, 
and hear how both, the one from his blissful rest in 
Abraham's bosom, the other from his bed of tor- 
ment in Hell, bear the same testimony to the worth 
of the soul. And, in the stilly Sabbath-hour, kneel 
down in your own chamber, and ask yourselves : — 
What shall it profit vie if I gain the whole world, 
and lose my own soul ?" 

The zvorld! Far be it from us to underrate its 
claims. We are called into the world, and have our 
post assigned in it, as the servants of God; and in 
all its phenomena we m.ay see the overruling power 
of God, and learn the lessons of flis love and justice. 
We are called to do good in the world, to bear our 
brethen's burden, and win their souls with ours for 
Heaven. We are to glorify God in it, by letting 
our light shine to His praise, and doing our part in 
its regeneration. 

With the love of Christ in the heart, the world 
cannot hurt us, but will become for us the wrestling 
place, where the life of the soul is strengthened, and 
after having enjoyed in it the bounties of God, and 
been blessed by its every gift, through the gratitude 



26 



SERMONS. 



it has waked in our breast to the Giver of everjr 
good and perfect gift, we shall bid it farewell calmly, 
and in the full assurance that from its vale of sorrow 
and temptation, and its state of imperfection, we shall 
rise to the blissful home above, where there shall be 
no more death, sorrow, crying or pain, and ''where 
God shall wipe away the tears from every eye." 

But, zintlioiit the love of Clirist^ and apart fromi the 
salvation of the soul,— ///^ zuorld / Ah, surely it 
cannot be reckoned of more worth than Clirisfs- 
blood ; that was God's price for it ! And all you 
seek and gain here, in an ungodly life on earth, is 
worth no more than the thirty pieces of silver that 
Judas got, and can purchase nothing better for you 
than the field of blood in Hell! the potter's field in 
Hell, where the souls of strangers shall find their 
place of execution. Strangers, for Hell was not 
built for men, but for devils ; strangers, for man was 
not created for condemnation, but has been called 
to Heaven by the love of a gracious Redeemer. 

Brethren, in the name of my Master, with the au- 
thority of my office as His messenger, with the ur- 
gency of love and deep concern which only a Christ- 
ian pastor's heart can realize, I ask you to answer 
the question : 

WJiat sliall it profit a man if lie gain the ivJiole' 
zvorld^ and lose Ids ozvn soul ? 



WHAT THEN ? 



27 



What then ? 
John, i. 21. 

The banks of the Jordan were crowded by mul- 
titudes that had gathered from Jerusalem and all 
Judea, and the country round about the sacred 
stream. The wilderness resounded vvith the unu- 
sual noise of masses hurrying to and fro, and again 
became strangely silent — more so than in its wonted 
solitude — as the thousands here assembled listened 
in breathless attention to the voice of the new Pro- 
phet who had risen in their midst. In the wilder- 
ness where Elija had stayed so often, and from 
which at last he stepped into the chariot of fire, 
and was borne on a whirlwind into heaven : there, 
with the same austere appearance ; like him, in rai- 
ment of camel's hair, with a leathern girdle round 
his loins, eating the locusts and wild honey of the 
desert; like him, ''a voice crying in the wilder- 
ness," and startling the depraved generation of his 
day with the thunder-bolts of God's law : John, the 
son of Zachariah and Elizabeth, appeared. And 
around him were poured the wondering masses that 
had ascended from Jerusalem and Jericho on the 
.south ; that had descended from the lake of Gene- 



28 



SERMONS. 



zereth on the north, and crossed the plain of Es- 
draelon from the land of Galilee. The priests were 
there, and scribes, and Levites ; the publicans, from 
their hated posts ; the soldiers, whose presence 
warned the people that the sceptre was departing 
from Juda ; the peasants were gathering there, to 
hear once more the voice of prophecy, which had 
been silent for four hundred years. And many 
must have been their musings and anxious specula- 
tions, as they looked upon the man of God, and re- 
membered the promise of the coming Messiah — 
when, from their midst stepped forth the deputation 
of the Sanhedrim, and gave utterance to the secret 
questionings of their hearts, and asked him: ^'Who 
art thou ?" " He confessed and denied not, but con- 
fessed *I am not the Christ.' And they asked him, 
' What then r " 

Let us leave the house of God, to which the wil- 
derness then was consecrated, the heavens its dome 
and the leafy cover of the Jordan forest, the never- 
failing waves of the sacred river flowing by ; and 
John, sent from God, preaching repentance and pre- 
paring the way of the Lord— let us leave that scene 
.and look upon tliis house of God, where you are 
gathered to-day, listening to the preached word. 
Ah, we need not put the question to the Preacher, 

Who art thou?" Many there are, alas, to whom 



WHAT THEN ? 



29 



he is still like John in the desert, no more than ''a 
voice crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way 
of the Lord;" whom he yet must startle from the 
death of sin and worldliness by the terrors of God's 
law, and the stern demand, Repent !" Many too, 
thank God, who have heard the voice of God's con- 
demning law, and feel the bitterness of their own 
hearts, and to whom, like John to his disciples, he 
can say : ''Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world!" 

But my object is to turn the question upon you,, 
my beloved brethren. You have come to-day into 
this house of God, which is a Christian Church; 
come here and prayed to our Heavenly Father, in. 
the name of Jesus ; heard His holy prophecies and- 
promises read — all about Christ; you have come to- 
listen to the preaching of Christ and Him crucified,, 
and I would trust you value such days and the tem- 
ple of God as the time and the place Vv^here, more 
than any where else, you may hear and see Jesus. 
It is but natural I should ask the question : Are you. 
Christians? 

Are yozc Cliristiaiis ? 

If not, what then ? 

I know some of you are ; I know that perhaps 
many, if personally addressed, would at least be able 
to express the modest and the trembling hope that 



30 



SERMONS. 



they are Christians. And I believe that more of 
you — God grant that it may be many — will be 
Christians by the grace of God, even under the poor 
preaching you hear from our pulpits. But I am 
justified in assuming that many — that the majority 
in our congregations — cannot give an affirmative 
answer to the question : Are you Christians ? And 
I therefore would ask all such, aye, brethren, whether 
they have made an outward profession of religion 
or refused it ; I would ask all who have just misgiv- 
ings as to their title to the name of Christian — I 
would ask all : If not Christians, what then ? 

Ah, my brethren, if I were to meet any cf you 
to-morrow, and put this question to you ; if I were 
to sit down by your fireside, or in your closet, w^ith 
none between us but God, and ask you face to face, 
and soul to soul, are you a Christian ? and then 
should see the drooping eye, and blushing cheek, 
and that mournful shake of the head, and averted 
face, which give but too decidedly an answer ; and 
then put to you my present inquiry : What then ?" 
I am certain you would be as silent tJien as you are 

710ZV. 

I know it is easier to ask this question than to 
answ^er it. It is the most unnatural, the strangest 
thing in the world, if any are no^ Christians, breth- 
ren. What ! with the Bible before you, and all its 



WHAT THEN? 



31 



evidences ? with the blessings around you which 
have accompanied Christianity ? with the open ac- 
knowledgment of its truth and necessity, involved in 
the support you give to the Church and its ministry, 
in the respect you show to its ordinances and prac- 
tices, the regularity with which you listen to its 
teaching and exhortation — yon not Christians f with 
its holy influences all around you, with the proofs 
of its saving, sanctifying, blissful character in your 
midst, with its hopes and fears constantly before 
you — yoit not CJiristians ! z^' hat then ? 

Ye you?tg vte?i, the children perhaps of pious pa- 
rents, that have been rocked to sleep to the hum of 
a Christian lullaby ; that have been taught the name 
of Jesus when first your stam^mering lips could lisp 
your prayers at your mother's knee. Ye young 
men and women that were dedicated to the service 
of Christ in infancy in holy baptism, and trained 
under the nursing influence of His Church; who 
owe everything you possess that is of lasting value 
to Christianity, and are the heirs of all the promises 
of the Bible; v/hom every sense of duty, every feel- 
ing of honour, should lead into allegiance to your 
Saviour ; whose success and prosperity, even here, 
is connected with your character as Christians, and 
to whom life opens the brightest prospect only in 
proportion to the respect you gain, (and, let me tell 



32 



SERMONS. 



every young woman, the graces you obtain,) as fol- 
lowers of the meek and lowly Jesus, ''holy, harm- 
less, undefiled and separate from sinners ye whom 
everything urges to a Christian life — the tearful pray- 
ers of parents, the remonstrance of friends, the ap- 
peals of your country, which would place its hopes 
in you ; the love of your Saviour, who sends His most 
earnest pleadings, and promises his choicest bless- 
ings to you, and beseeches you to remember now 
your Creator, in the days of your youth : are you 
Christians ? If not — if, in spite of all these mercies,, 
all these holy influences, all the hopes set before 
you, all the calls of infinite love to your hearts — so 
susceptible even by nature to what is great and no- 
ble — if you are not Christians, I ask, what then ? 

Ye parents — oh, heaven ! must I address my ques- 
tion to parents ? to fathers and mothers, upon whom 
God has bestowed the sweetest heritage of his fa- 
vour, the dearest pledges of His love ; to whom He 
has given children, children with immortal souls, 
that they are to train for Heaven and everlasting- 
bliss, or must otherwise look forward to their eter- 
nal ruin ! parents on whose souls are bound the 
precious, never-dying souls of those they love better 
than their own lives, and whose happiness they would 
purchase at any sacrifice ? Parents, whose precept 
and example is the great channel through which the 



WHAT THEN ? 



33 



blessings of God's covenant descend to them ; who 
must bring them to Christ, and precede them there, 
•or they can have no hope of seeing them happy 
here and blessed hereafter; or they must be con- 
tent to endure in their eternal prison of woe, above 
the worm that never dieth, and the fire that is not 
quenched, the unutterable agon}' of seeing the dar- 
lings of their soul brought to the same ruin of con- 
demnation and howling despair by their guilt, and 
being charged by them in hell with having wrought 
their eternal loss and ruin, by their own neglect and 
destructive guidance and example 1 Parents, — are 
you Christians ? — Christians }'ourselves — for unless 
you are, how can you lead }'our children away from 
the paths of sin and death, and hide them in the 
saving arms of Christ? Are you Christians?" If 
not, if you resist all the appeals which nature and 
natural affection, duty and reason, and God's word 
make to you, if you are not Christians, I ask, z^'hat 
tlicn ? 

Ye men of business ! whose success in life de- 
pends on zeal, and honesty, and prudence; and to 
whom, here in the Bible, we bring such hopes as 
should quicken the energies of the dullest; and be- 
fore whom we lay, in the Gospel, a code of morality 
which outstrips all other codes of law, and to whom 
Ave give, in God's word, maxims of prudence and 



34 



SERMONS. 



Avisdom which charge all the smartness of the world 
w^ith folly! ye who know that you owe your se- 
curity, and your neighbor's trustfulness, and your 
advantages of peace and prosperity, of culture 
and civilization, to the influence of Christianity, felt, 
through the length and breadth of the world, and 
pervading this community in which you trade and 
work ; to whom we offer in the profession and con- 
sistent walk of religion a passport to men's confi- 
dence, and a high-road to a lofty and honored posi- 
tion, such as nothing else can procure; aye, more, 
to whom is .herein pledged the favour of God, in 
whom you live and move and have your being, and 
on whom in all things, — whether consciously or 
not, willingly or not, submissively or otherw^ise — you 
depend; ye, to whom we bring here, amidst the 
manifold changes of this life, the fearful suddenness 
of which but too many experience, a firm ground 
to stand on and a steadfast anchor to rely on; a 
comfort and solace in affliction and distress, which 
you well know the cold heart of the world will 
never give; and even when all forsake you, a Friend 
that sticketh closer than a brother, and will prove 
Himself faithful and true the more you may have 
to lament the passing nature of everything earthly, 
and the fickleness of human friendship and favor? 
Are you Christians ? if not, zvliat then? 



WHAT THEN? 



35 



Ye aged / to whom life extends no more joys, 
and no more promises, and no more hopes ; who 
are bowing under the burden of your years, and 
whose infirmities grow with every day ; before 
whom is yawning, in the near distance, the grave 
that shall forever close upon you all the delusive 
charms and false promises, and forever rob you of 
all the passing idols of this life; but to whom the 
religion of Jesus offers an eternity of glory and bliss, 
and a new life which the grave cannot subdue, and 
for which death has no sting — tell me, oh, tell me, 
as ye would not bring your gray hairs with shame 
and dishonor and fear and sorrow into the grave, 
tell me, are ye CJinstians ? if not^ zuhat then ? 

Oh, that I could put this question before every 
one among you ! 

Are you Christians? if not, what then? Are you 
Heathens? Mohammedans, Jews, Atheists? Are 
you idolaters, robbers, murderers, thieves? No, 
brethren, I am not going to make you out worse 
than you are. I do not charge you with any par- 
ticular sins — humanly considered; I do not rake 
up the hidden secrets of your life and act the judge 
before you. No; I believe all that is good and right 
of you. I take it for granted that you are honest, 
truthful, candid, attentive to your duties, kind to 
your neighbor, liberal to the claims of the Gospel, 



36 



SERMONS. 



moved to sympathy and active benevolence when 
the cry of suffering reaches your ear. I'll admit it 
gladly, and to a greater degree than you would 
claim. But, brethren, is it tJiis? is it their being- 
honest and kind and charitable and sober and 
truthful, which keeps any one from being a Chris- 
tian? No, no! In all this the Christian should 
stand in the foremost rank. And the more of such 
dispositions in the heart and such actions in our 
life we can show, the more the Christian has cause 
to thank God that *'He is w^orking in him to will 
and to do ! " ' 

No! If persons refuse a profession of Christ; if 
they decline the invitation given in great love and 
affection; if they are forced to answer why they are 
not Christians, and say 'Svhat then" they are — 
the answer almost universally received is, that they 
are sinners! siimers ! I might say, it argues a sad 
state of things and shows a fearful confusion of 
right and wrong, when people are more ready to 
confess that they are sinners than that they are dis^ 
honest, unkind, guilty of any particular charge, the 
mere outcroppings of the sin within; that they will 
blush before God rather than before man. But 
what I have to say here, is this : that if ye are sin- 
ners, ye are the very persons who ought to be 
Christians, and are invited to be Christians. It is 



WHAT THEN? 



37 



to sinners that the Gospel is preached, for sinners 
that Christ has died, to sinners that a way has been 
opened into the grace and love of God. What else 
is the Gospel but pardon and new life to sinners? 
What was it to Peter when he denied his Lord? to 
Paul, who styles himself the chief of sinners? what 
is it to me, in whom Christ has shown forth all 
long-suffering, to encourage others to trust Him 
likewise? what is it to any Christians, who are men 
of like passions with you, who liave known as much 
of sin as you, and s^ll know its power as much or 
more than you do, but a message of peace and par- 
don to sinners, and the power of God unto salvation 
to those who, by nature, were und^r condemnation, 
as you are, and in the bondage of sin? No, you 
are no Christians, not because you are sinners, but 
because you are — and this is the answ^er to my ques- 
tion: ''what then?'' — because you are itiibelieving 
and impenitent sinners ! There can be no other an- 
swer. No sin ever has kept any one out of heaven 
that would go to Jesus for pardon, and in repentance 
renounce it! This is the very pith and marrow of 
the Gospel, and thus only it can be glad tidings to 
fallen man ! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved." If w^e confess our sins, 
God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If you are 
4 



38 



SERMONS. 



clear of these two charges — unbelief and impeni- 
tence — then come! God has been gracious to you, 
for you is the marriage feast prepared ! 

But — think a moment, brethren — yotc imbeliev- 
ing ! who admit the authority of the Bible, who 
believe Jesus to be the Son of God, w^ho would re- 
sent as insult and indignity the charge of infidelity ! 
Yoii unbelieving, who build churches, and support 
the ministry, and aid in sending the Gospel to others, 
and constantly avail yourselves of the blessings of 
Christianity ! Oh ! is it not strange that such incon- 
sistency should be so common, and that with all the 
assent of the intellect, and all the concurrence of 
every better feeling, the heart yet can be settled in 
unbelief, and resolutely refuse to apply that blood 
to its salvation which they know and acknovv'ledge 
alone cleanseth from all sin ? But, behold ! unbe- 
lief is supported by ivipcnitenee. It is because faith 
cannot be exercised without repentance that faith 
goes begging. It is because Christ is a Saviour 
from sin, and not in our sins, that His grace is re- 
jected. 

Impenitent! It is the most fearful thing, brethren, 
and if you consider it seriously, the miost humil- 
iating thing imaginable, that men should refuse to 
repent! What! to renounce the devil and all his 
works? his deeds of darkness and sins of unright- 



WHAT THEN ? 39 

eousness and lust, which you would shrink from as 
before the pubhc eye, so at the forum of your own 
conscience? To renounce them, brethren, not to 
say that you hav^e not been, or perhaps are not guilty 
of them, surely liable to them : but from this moment 
onward to resolv^e to give them up, and in the 
strength of Christ, pledged to you in His own 
word, which you cannot disbelieve, to resist them. 
Can you refuse this ? To renounce the vain pomp of 
the world and its vanities? to resolve to give them 
up rather than Heaven and Christ, who died for 
you? to renounce the sinful desires of the flesh, 
which are as leprosy preying upon you here? Can 
you refuse to renounce them? and refuse obediently 
to keep God's holy will and commandments? and 
retain your self-respect and esteem of your fellow- 
men, and have hopes of a better future? 

Ah I my beloved brethren, let me give another 
turn to the question of my text: suppose you go 
on in this course of unbelief and impenitence? sup- 
pose you persevere in it against all the obstacles 
which a gracious God shall place in your way, and 
all His mercies and chastisements by w^hich His 
goodness would lead you to repentance? suppose 
you live out this life as you have begun — zuJiat tlien ? 

What then, young vian, when the hand of death 
-Suddenly arrests you, and you plead your youth, 



40 



SERMONS. 



and He reminds you that it was foretold you, that 
*'for all these thing He would bring you unto judg- 
ment?" 

UViaf tlicn ? ye guilty parents^ when in characters 
of living fire you read these words — ''suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not!" 
''bring up a child in the way he should go!" 

Wliat tJicn ? ye men of business^ when in vain you 
plead the many occupations of your time, as you 
remember, how it was preached to you, almost to 
nausea, that ''one thing was needful," and that you 
should "first seek the Kingdom of God and His 
righteousness." 

Vlliat tJien? ye honorable men of the zvorld^ when 
before the last tribunal ye find you have no honour 
of God? 'Wliat then/ when ye shall see all, all fail 
of Heaven who have not been Christians on earth, 
who have not believed and repented here, and 
ascended on the wings of faith and love! 

Oh ! as you look over this life and all that it may 
offer you of its deceitful charms and its corrupting 
idols, think of death and of eternity, and ask your 
selves — zchat tJien ! 

There is in modern Jerusalem, under the western 
wall of the temple, a place, the saddest place in all 
that sad part of the sacred city, the Jews' quarter; 
where every Friday the resident or stranger Jews 



WHAT THEN? 



41 



resort: it is the wailing place of the Jews! There^ 
with bowed head and often tearful voices, they 
bewail the desolation of their sanctuary and the 
affliction of their people ! Oh, it must be sad indeed 
to see the children of Abraham kneeling there, in 
the sense of God's wrath hanging over them, with 
that deep and never dying love to Jerusalem in. 
their hearts, and the honour of the temple their 
chief desire! See them, through all the long, long 
centuries of affliction, and eighteen hundred years of 
degradation and banishment, still cling to the truth 
of God's promises, and in the full belief of a com- 
ing Messiah, raise the tearful eye and cry O Lord, 
how long! " 

Brethren, is there not such a place of wailing in 
the life of every sinner? and often even in our 
churches ? Are there not those in our congregations,, 
w^ho, not seeing the free salvation of God in Christy 
and yet alarmed by the sense of their own unworth- 
iness and condemnation, sit wailing and mourning? 
Oh, look up and take comfort, Messiah has comet 
He has come to jo?/, and bids you look to Him and 
be saved! Arise, cease your unbelief, trust Him,, 
and salvation is yours! 

And oh, will there not be a wailing place for ev^ 
ery impenitent sinner ? an everlasting wailing place^ 
where the lost soul in vain shall cry for a Messiah,. 



42 



SERMONS. 



aye more vainly than the wretched Israelite in 
Jerusalem ? for to him the gospel still is preached. 

May God save you from that wailing place, and 
give you faith and repentance ! 

The loving eye of Jesus is on you now, and in 
tender compassion He saith, if thou didst know,, 
even thou, at least in this day, the things that belong^ 
unto thy peace ; alas, that they are hid from thine 
eyes !" God grant that the scales may fall froni 
your eyes, that ye may believe and be saved ! God 
forbid that it should be said of you, that they are 
forever hid from your eyes ! Oh, no, no, no ! My 
faith shall not yield and give you up ; but as long 
as I have a voice to speak I will tell men of that 
love of God which bids them come, and pray Him 
to increase their faith ! No, I never will give up 
my belief that His word is now as powerful as ever,, 
to dispel every darkness. I never will give up my 
belief, that His love is as sustaining now as in days 
of yore. I never will give up any, as long as the 
message of Christ's love can reach them. May God 
incline your hearts to yield ! You cannot say that 
these things are hid from you ! Behold, the gospel 
banner is floating over you, and "free grace'' is its 
motto ! Behold, ye cannot attend this church with-- 
out knowing that Christ came to save sinners, and 
stands and waits at the door of your hearts ; that 



WHAT THEN? 



God SO loved the world as to give His only Son 
die for it, and that 

The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose, 
He will not; He will not desert to his foes; 
That soul, tho' all hell shall endeavor to shake, 
He'll never, no never, no never forsake I 



44 



SERMONS. 



TJie Disciples ivere called CJirisiians first iii Antioch. 
Acts, xi. 26. 

As A historical fact, this passage of the sacred 
narrative marks an epoch of the greatest import- 
ance. It records the second birthday of the Christ- 
ian Church ; the inauguration of St. Paul's work^ 
who was commissioned to carry the Gospel from 
the narrow bounds of Palestine to the Gentiles, out 
of Judea into the world ! In the veiy name Christ- 
ian we recognize the hand of Paul. It set the 
young Church free from its Jewish bondage, and 
declared it to be the religion of the world, univer 
sal, catholic—^'' where there is neither Jew nor 
Greek ; neither bond nor free, but all are in Christ 
Jesus." It gave a distinct form to the new relig- 
ious element, and united all believers, irrespective 
of nationalities, under the sole name of Christ, and 
bound them together in that compact body which 
the world could not resist. From that moment the 
Church was emancipated from Jewish thraldom ; 
from that moment she started to conquer the world. 

In its practical bearings, the text is still more 
important. The disciples were called Christ- 
ians." That name which, though despised by the 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



45 



Avorld, and hunted down by cruelty and persecu- 
tion, soon became the greatest glory of those who 
believed in Jesus. Before the tribunals of the Ro- 
man magistrates, in the face of the infuriated mobs 
of the Jews, amidst the torments of their persecu- 
tors, and the flames of the stake, the universal 
shout of the faithful was: " I am a Christian I " 

Can we say the same of ourselves? In the days 
of trials and persecutions men gloried in it ; can we 
glory in it in the days of our prosperity, and when 
Christianity is a passport to respectability? Here^ 
I say, are the practical bearings of the text upon 
ourselves. They were called Christians because 
they were distinguished from the world; the very 
name designated their coming out of the world 
into the Church. 

Are lue Christians, brothers? 

It is truly astonishing that, with all the light 
Avhich the Bible gives us, and which i^^e may gather 
from the services and Collects of the Prayer-Book, 
embodying the known confessions of the most en- 
lightened and advancing Christians of all ages and 
countries, that, with all this, there should be such a 
want of clearness and definiteness in most minds, 
to such a degree that it appears to many as "with- 
out form and void," and that the whole subject of 
perso7ial Cliristianity assumes a mysteriousness, and 



46 SERMONS. 

is invested with a superstitious awe, as it were, 
which makes people shrink from the very contem- 
plation of it, and which they know not how to con- 
sider in reference to themselves. And yet, breth- 
ren, the idea embraced in that glorious name, a 
Christian,'' is something definite, tangible. All ad- 
mit that there is a difference between Christians 
and those who are not; something which is pecu- 
liar to them as the children of God. \Miat is it? 

Of course it does not merely refer to outward 
profession, to outward church membership. The 
world is so r.eady to underrate these that we have 
to insist most strenuously upon their importance as 
"generally necessary '' and incumbent on every true 
Christian; faith demands the confession of Christ 
in His ordinances. But, God forbid that we should 
ever present the name as the thing, the shadow as 
the substance. Xor does it mean an approval of 
the doctrines and practices of Christianity; for how 
often do we find a man's convictions and his prac- 
tice at variance. Xor, finally, if, instead of taking 
the perverted notions and self-righteous concep- 
tions of the natural man for our guide, we follow 
the teachings of the Scriptures, and the confessions 
and experience of intelligent professors, and the 
ripest Christians, does it mean that the Christian is 
one who pretends to be good and worthy of God's 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



47 



favour; who claims that name because he can boast 
of any attainments of his own, and stays his hope 
on any strength he possesses, any progress he can 
point to, the certainty that he has overcome every 
sin, the triumphs which he has obtained ? Far from 
it, brethren ! The very name indicates the reverse 
of this position: that in the sense of his own un- 
worthiness, and knowing that there is no health in 
him, he does not plead Jiivisclf^ but Christ ! relies 
not on his own right, but that of Christ; makes 
mention of nothing but Him and His merits. He 
owes all to Christ; and co fessing this, trusts in 
Him, and not in himself; he refuses to be called 
after himself, but after Christ. He professes not to 
be standing in his own strength and power, or ris- 
ing by his own efforts and goodness, but to be one 
pardoned, saved, made righteous, and accepted in 
Christ, and sheer honesty compels him to confess 
this in his very name. He owes all to Christ, and 
owns himself as His. Purchased by His blood, res- 
cued by His love, upheld by His grace, he does 
not owe his position and his hopes to himself, but 
to Christ ; and therefore says, humbly, meekly in- 
deed, in the sense of unworthiness and unprofita- 
bleness even in this character, and the feeble hold 
his faith has on him, yet all the more earnestly and 
anxiously and prayerfully : I am a Christian. 



48 



SERMONS. 



This is the great fundamental idea of his name. 
It does not exhaust it, for it has its farther bear- 
ings ; but it is the true ground on which he stands. 
And it is this which makes the Gospel glad tidings 
to fallen man, and enables us to bring its invitation 
to all. 

No goodness, no righteousness of our own, no 
attainments, no certain amount of strength, no se- 
curity in our own steadfastness, can make us Chris- 
tians ; the ver}' name excludes anything of our own. 
For all, we rest on Christ, and acknowledge it ia 
the confession that we trust to Him and not to our- 
selves, and therefore are called Christians. 

But it is true, this is only one aspect. Taking it 
as the starting point, the only ground on which we 
can stand as the children of God — we must carrj^ 
out the idea embraced in it legitimately: We are 
CJiristians, i. e., Chrisfs^ and therefore must live as 
those who are His ; our life must be by His power, 
will and law. Ruled by Hi in, and trusting in Him^ 
we must do as He has done: j-esisi sin and live unto 
God. Christ is not only our security from guilt 
and cur plea before the Father, but also our great 
and glorious example, whom we must follow in our 
hfe ; whom we must represent in our walk and con- 
versation. We are Christians not only because we 
put our trust in Him for justification, but also for 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



49 



that grace in which we profess henceforth to en- 
deavour to hve as His soldiers and servants,- en- 
listed in His warfare against sin, the world, and the 
devil; bound to His service in all holy and Godly 
obedience ! This is the mind, with which we call 
ourselves after Christ, the high and holy calling we 
choose as those who, are saved by hlim ! 

And now we are prepared to say: who is a 
Christian ? where do we find him, but in the man 
who, acknowledging his own unworthiness and 
helplessness, puts all his trust and confidence in 
Christ, and who, thus trusting his soul to Him,, 
now strives to live the life of which Christ has given 
us the example, renounces sin, and lives to the 
glory of God in obedience to His holy will and com- 
mandments? And he is the dest Christian who 
trusts 7nost in Christ and least in 1 tin is elf ^ and counts 
his own attainments least ; and, in the knowledge 
that he has not yet attained, neither is already per- 
fect, strives most earnestly and constantly, by God's 
help, to live up more and more to the holy standard 
put up for us by Christ! 

Now, if this is the true definition of a Christian, 
what evidence can we have that we are such ? 

Can we gather it from some such attainments 
gifts and works, the impossibility of pointing to 
which keeps back so many; but which, as we have 

3 



50 



SERMONS. 



just seen, we renounce as giving us a title to this 
name? Why, that would be contradictory with 
our position ! Or, can we go back into the past, 
and rest ourselves upon some sweet moment of as- 
surance, some brilliant experience weeks or years 
ago, the absence of which distresses so many? My 
brethren, the evidences we need are present evi^- 
dences; we must be Christ's noiv^ or it will be of no 
avail to us that we fancied ourselves to be His 
years ago ! We must be striving now to serve and 
obey Him ; no past service can ensure us our posi- 
tion. For, at best, we are unprofitable servants, and 
never can lay up a claim or merit on which we 
could draw to comfort us in our present state ! 
Whether we believed, repignted, prayed, worship- 
ped, worked five years ago, or a year ago, is noth- 
ing to the purpose unless we believe and pray and 
repent and \\ox\>i now ! And if we never did so 
before, and do so naiv, w^e have all the evidence we 
need and can have, that we are Christians, Chris- 
tians nozv ; for no title is good except the present 
one! 

People examine their faith, their repentance, their 
conversion, their prayers. That is all very well ; and: 
it is a sweet comfort to believe that God's grace 
has been with us; very encouraging to go on, and 
from the tokens of God's love in the past to con- 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



tinue to trust Him, to work on in hope ! But to 
look to these as our title ^ as sources of comfort, and 
-evidences of our eminent satisfactory Christianity? 
On the contrary, the true effect of self-examination 
Avill always be to humble us, to lead us anew to the 
foot of the cross, to seek for present help, to strive 
for greater attainments, greater evidences, to prove 
to us God's grace, manifesting itself in a life all 
aglow with the spirit of Christ. Why, brethren, it 
is not our faitli which we pay as a price for our sal- 
vation! Salvation is free! The best we can say of 
our faith is, that it would be a miserable price; the 
best of us would hav^e cause to doubt their charac- 
ter as Christians if it rested for its meritorious cause 
on strong and sufficient faitJi. ''Lord, increase our 
faitJi!'' is the cry of the sincere Christian; ''Lord, 
L believe; help thou mine 2inbelief is the prayer 
with Vv'hich we approach Him. That is no faith at 
all which makes a man satisfied with himself as a 
Christian, which makes him think he possesses 
a quality now which is his own. That, in fact, 
would rather separate us from Christ! Faith ex- 
cludes all such boasting; it leads the soul out 
of itself to Christ; all it has^ all it glories in, is 
Christ! That alone is saving faith, which noii\ at 
the present moment, and forever leads us anew to 
-Christ, and makes us cling to Him as if we had 



SERMONS. 



neve}' had hold of Him before: "Lord! save, or I 
perish!" 

It is so with all Christian graces, with everything 
Ave hope for in Christ. 

Take the highest point that can be made — and oh ! 
that is made so superstitiously by many : Conversion f 
What — if you think you were converted years ago— 
what is that to you, unless you live as a converted per- 
son iiozv ; unless you 7iow believe in Christ, now turn 
from sin, Jiozv turn to God in a holy, righteous and so- 
ber life? I should like to know what other proof of 
conversion \ye can have but this ; and unless we have 
it now and hence forth, what use is it to us to believe 
that we had it in former days ? Turn us, good Lord, 
and so shall we be turned," is a Christian prayer. 
Do not wonder at the urgency with which we press 
this word ''now," upon you. " Now is the accepted 
time," we must say to those who have never yet 
acknowledged Christ, and either fear that their day 
is passed, or vainly trust in a future season of re- 
pentance. Now is the accepted time," we must 
say to those who have made a profession and hum- 
bly hope that the grace of God is with them. It is 
of no avail to have heard and obeyed once, if we 
are not now, ''henceforth," as the Prayer-Book has 
it, walking in His holy commandments. " Grant, 
Oh ! most merciful Father, for His sake, that we 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



53 



may hereafter live a godly, righteous and sober life, 
to the glory of Th}' holy name ! " The Christian's 
evidences always are pj-ospective. But he who rests 
on his attainments, and grows careless because he 
has enough — brethren, he may fancy to have re- 
ceived but he has only deceived himself, and has no- 
lot or part in His salvation. 

Again: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!'*" 
What does it mean but believe 7iozu — for nozu you 
need a Saviour, and need him to the end! Sup- 
pose a man had believed for twenty years, and he 
should now cease to believe. Whether such cases 
are actually possible or not, we need not discuss ; 
w^e merely use it as an illustration. We must take 
people's faith upon their profession ; that may be a. 
false one, or they ma\' have been mistaken : its 
lasting character, its groicing nature, its persever- 
ance to the e7id, alone can prove it saving faith. 
Suppose he should cease now to believe, zvoiild lie 
not be lost? He is noi^^ without that Saviour, with 
whom faith alone connects him, nozv without that 
blood which alone cleanses him from sin, now with- 
out that righteousness which alone can shield him, 
and all his former faith could only heighten the 
heinousness of his present unbelief. And if we 
never had believed before — if we believe now, all 
our sins are pardoned, and we are accepted in 



54 



SERMONS. 



Christ. Oh, what comfort in that thought ! What 
an appeal to all ! It is a present faith we want, to 
bear us out in the present moment; w^e must have 
it now and ever or we are lost. And the only evi- 
dence that we are Christians, is that we believe 
710W ! The only evidence zvhen lue die that we are 
Christians, that we believe then ! The only power 
to enter the gates of Heaven, that we can pronounce 
the name of CJirist. 

So with repentance : God's word saith tcpenf — : 
it is an ever nezi\ ever present appeal. He is no 
Christian who does not repent nozv. There is nozv 
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit" — 
tJiat is repentance I 

So with prayer ! No reliance on some sweet mo- 
ments of former intercourse. Lord, teach us how 
to pray," for ever remains the true prayer of every 
God-aspiring soul. 

So with works ! No rest in what we liave done! 
Work out your own salvation " is the law for all 
Christians. " Strive to enter in," stay in, advance 
in, is the warning to every soul. 

So with attainments ! Not as though I had 
already attained, either were already perfect ; but 
forgetting the things that are behind, I press to- 
wards the mark ! Only he that endureth to the. 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



55 



end shall be blessed ! " Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life I " 

Ah ! Brethren, here is the practical part, vian's- 
part of a final perserverance, which all can under- 
stand. Xot that because we fancy ourselves once 
to have believed and been converted, that therefore 
we are elected and safe, no matter what lives we are 
leading now; but that, by the grace of God, z^'c hold 
on ! And only that title is good which, whenever 
we plead it, is verified by active, present faith, and 
love and obedience. 

The Disciples were called Christians first in 
Antioch/' Antioch, the largest, but the most cor- 
rupt city of Asia; where wealth and power had 
their seat; where the world kept its carnival, and 
every luxury, and every licentious amusement of 
the degenerate Greeks of the East had their home; 
where all the frivolities and all the sins of a corrupt 
age, an unnatural civilization, and a luxurious cli- 
mate were found together. Yet, liere it was where 
the Gospel was to gain its first victories over the 
Heathen world, and the Church establish her power 
for centuries. Here the great apostle took the field, 
and from here he began his great missionary jour- 
neys, which eventually resulted in the triumph of 
Christianity over the world. Here was Satan's 
stronghold ; here the world was in its fullest force,. 



56 



SERMONS. 



and ruled in its most attractive form; here the apos- 
tle attacked the adversary, and the pomps and vani- 
ties of the world, with its covetous desires ; here sin 
reigned and slew its thousands; here the power of 
the Gospel brought salvation to its tens of thou- 
sands. God be thanked, // is so still/ Christianity 
shows its power most gloriously where sin and the 
world and the devil seem stron^-est. In our lar^^est 
cities, where the shadows fall darkest, the light of 
the Gospel is brightest I It was in Corinth that 
Christ assured the apostles that he had many souls. 
Oh, brethren, is it not so here ? And can we not 
preach the Gospel boldly, must we not preach it 
faithfully here, amidst all the evil around us? Yes, 
and are we not encouraged to preach the Gospel to 
the most forlorn, the farthest gone, the least hope- 
ful, the most hardened ? Just as we must still and 
ever preach it to the best, the most experienced and 
promising. The best need the warnings and threat- 
enings of God's word; the i^'oi'st \\q invite- to Him, 
whose blood cleanseth from all sin. To the most 
advrnced we hold up their high and holy calling; 
to the most hardened we bring the promise of that 
power which quickens to a new and better life. To 
the foremost we say, ''be not high-minded, but 
fear; " to the humbest we say, ''despair not; arise, 
and wash away thy sins; call upon God; commit 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 



57 



thyself to Jesus — He casts out none that come. 
Come thou with us and be a Christian 1" 

The Disciples were called Christians first in 
Antioch." What has become of this first strong- 
hold of the Gentile Church, this great Eastern me- 
tropolis? Earthquakes, fires, famine and the sword 
have laid it low ; and the cross has fled before the 
crescent I Its splendid temples are crumbled in 
the dust, its lofty palaces fallen to the ground, its 
magnificent streets with their stately colonnades 
destroyed, its lovely groves and gardens desolated, 
its hundreds of thousands dwindled to barely six 
thousand inhabitants. Antakia, the modern An- 
tioch, with its mud and straw houses, and misera- 
ble streets; with no Christian church, and fourteen 
insignificant mosques, is a living, but lingering 
proof that its candlestick has been removed, and its 
hght quenched, because the living breath of Chris- 
tianity died out! Oh, what a warning to us, the 
living, that no present prosperity, and no outward 
show of religion, no spiritual privileges and loud 
professions, no apostolic beginnings of a Church, 
are a security against the decay of true faith and 
earnest Christian lifel And what a thought, that 
the absence of life and growth may be a judg- 
ment — "the candlestick removed" — and the sad- 
ness which fills us as we travel through the land 



58 



SERMONS. 



and see the evidences of weaknes,s and decay, made 
sadder still by the fear, the possibility, that it is be- 
cause the living breath died out: people fallen from 
their first love, and seeking first the things of earth 
and time, and not the kingdom of God, His truth 
and righteousness! 

My brethren, what an appeal to us all, to avoid a 
similar retribution upon our country, our commu- 
nity, our congregations, ourselves — by making our 
Christianity more than a name, a reality ! by com- 
ing out from the world — that heathen Antioch — - 
and being separate unto the Church of the living 
God; by making our calling and election sure in a 
holy walk and conversation, and handing down to 
our children, and children's children, the mercies 
and blessings of the Gospel, the heritage of the 
Church! 

Let us all remember, our course as Christians is 
still before us; we must grow in grace, or we cease 
to verify our character as the disciples of Christ; we 
must persevere to the end^ or we falsify our Christian 
name, and are lost. 

Oh, by all the warnings of God's word and God's 
providence, by all the sweet promises which He 
gives us, by all the tokens of His love and care and 
faithfulness ; brethren, by all the issues involved 
and the glory to be revealed, by the love of your 



THE NAME OF CHRISTIAN. 59 

# 

own selves, your children and your country, by the 
love of Jesus, which soeaks to vou so touchinelv 
in the sacred emblem of His death and passion. Ave 
call you to a truly Christian life I Call for your 
faith, that it may grow stronger and stronger, and 
overcome the world; call for your repentance , that 
it may be deeper and more sincere, as you cry unto 
God, ''make me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a 
right spirit within me; '' for your prayers, that they 
may be more fervent and constant to prevail with 
God. We call upon you to use every means of 
grace offered, and every power and faculty given 
you to glorify God; to strive to enter in at the 
straight gate, to walk worthy of \^our vocation, to 
approve yourselves in the sight of God and man. 
We call upon you to cultivate every Christian grace, 
the mind which was in Christ Jesus, the temper and 
moderation, the meekness, the purity and holiness 
of His life, the law-abiding patience and faithfulness 
in duty, the never-wearying, self-denying zeal and 
love which shall show what spirit you are of; and, 
in the sight of God, in your own consciences, in 
the sight of your enemies and before an opposing 
world, prove in your life and to }-our d}'ing da\' that 
you are Christians I 

Yes, my Christian brethren, my prayer to God is 
that you may so live that others, beholding your life 



6o SERMONS. 

and conversation, may know you as those who have 
been with Jesus," and as they watch you, exclaim: 
^'Behold a Christian I" ]\Iay you so Hve, that when 
God shall send His holy angels to gather in His 
elect, and bring them to their blessed rest, to His 
kingdom and glory ; they may read Christ's name 
upon your foreheads, and open to you the joys of 
Heaven ; and that the hosts of the Church tri- 
umphant shall glorify God as they see you ascend- 
and say: 

Behold a Clwistian! 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 6 1 



Man shall 7iot live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth ont of the nioitth of God, 
^Matthew iv. 4. 

The wilderness of Judea is before us, the moun- 
tainous tract which hes east of Jerusalem, and 
stretches along the plains of Jordan and the west- 
ern shore of the Dead sea ; a desolate region, bare 
and dreary, presenting everywhere yellow sand and 
grey rocks ; scarce a tree to be seen ; a few shrubs 
here and there on the slopes, and the intervening 
dells covered with arid ^^rass, and some o;reen 
bushes of cistus. In the days of Joshua, when the 
Israelites took possession of their promised herit- 
age, six cities stood there, with their villages ; but 
as the asphaltic lake buried the cities of the plain, 
so the wilderness encroached on the habitations of 
man ; in course of tin:e these cities disappeared, and 
the whole region between Jericho and the Dead sea 
became as stonv and barren as it is now, deserted bv 
man, and the haunt of wild beasts. 

In this dreary solitude, a solitary wanderer is seen. 
From beyond Jordan, where, to fulfil all righteous- 
ness. He had been baptized, and where He was 
crowned as ''the Son of God, in whom the Father 

was well pleased," He went as '*the son of man," 
6 



62 



SERMONS. 



led by the Spirit/' into the wilderness, to prepare for 
the great work of man's redemption. From the 
scene of glory He was transferred to the wilderness, 
and initiated in the ills and sufferings of human en- 
durance. For forty days he stayed there, fasting and 
alone, bent under the scorching rays of a sun which, 
in unclouded lustre, hung in the heavens as in a 
brazen vault. Yet in that serene composure, in 
that calm countenance, in those blissful hours when 
his knee was bent by the desert shores of that se- 
pulchral lake, or on the hard soil of the mountain- 
track, you could read, that — as in the last days 
of his painful pilgrimage on earth, with the death 
of infamy in the near prospect — so now, though 
lonely He was not alone," for ''the Father was with 
Him;" and though the earth withheld her food 
from Him, and His human nature felt the cravings 
of hunger, yet He lear-ied the truth that Man does 
not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

Methinks I can see Him there ! 

From the scene of glory He was transferred to 
the days of trial and the scenes of temptation ; and 
called to the combat with the adversary of God and 
man. He was alone. But ever and anon the com- 
munion with His Father in heaven, the solemn med- 
itations of His soul were interrupted by a strange^ 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



63 



unearthly influence. From the lake, over whose 
dreary, unrelieved flatness He cast His eye, and in 
whose sullen, sluggish waves He read the lessons 
of God's wrath, one would start up like a ghost 
from Sodom and Gomorrha, to w^hom the lusts of 
former days gave no rest under the heavy cover of 
his watery grave, and whisper in his ear terrible 
things of apostasy and human pleasure. As He 
stretched His weary limbs under the projecting 
rock and sought relief in the forgetfulness of sleep, 
one would lie down beside Him, and ply His sin- 
less soul with images of forbidden joys, and the 
wish to leave the dregs of His bitter cup untasted, 
and cut short the day of trial and preparation. As 
He leaned exhausted against one of the few stunted 
trees, the same voice would reach his ear, and that 
weird eye, which put its spell upon Eve, look down 
on Him from its bending branches, and the wily 
tongue would bid Him cease His suffering, and, 
relying on His supernatural power, ''command that 
these stones be made bread." About three miles 
from the road leading to Jericho, Mount Quaran- 
tania rises, fifteen hundred or two thousand feet in 
heighth, distinguished for its sere and desolate 
aspect, even in this gloomy region of savage and 
dreary sights." Its highest summit now is crowned 
with a chapel, occasionally resorted to by the more 



64 



SERMONS. 



devout pilgrims, while the eastern face, which over- 
hangs the plain, and commands a noble view of the 
Arabian rnxountains, is much occupied with grottos 
and cells, the favorite abodes of pious anchorites. 
Here tradition fixes the spot of the Temptation. 
Here, as in the hour of His last trials, the Saviour 
said : " The cup which my Father hath given me, 
shall I not drink it? Is it not ^ly meat to do the 
will of Him that sent Me. and to finish His work?" 
And as He turned the friend aside, and bade him 
get behind Him," so now he bid the tempter flee, 
and said: ''Ht is written, ' ]\Ian shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 
of the mouth of God.' " 

Brethren, let us turn from the wilderness of judea 
to another and a greater wilderness — this earth; 
and from the Son of God to the pilgrim-truant of 
earth — to man, to ourselves, the children of a fallen 
race. . 

x\h, there was a time Avhen this earth had not 
known the spoiler's touch, and when the seal of 
God's approval was set upon the Avork of His 
hand; when "the morning-stars sang together, 
and the sons of God shouted for joy," as they 
heard Him say that it was "very good.'^ But a 
blight has fallen upon it, and the Paradise of earth 
has, by sin, been turned into a wilderness. 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



65 



The Christian is no ultraist. He does not under- 
rate the beauties which this earth bears, traces of 
the master-builder's skill. He does not scorn the 
work of man and the societ}' of his fellow-pilgrims. 

I- have stood by the cataract as it leaped from the 
rock, and seen Niagara pour its ocean-wave into 
the abvss below, and in the deafenincr noise which 
rose from the mighty cauldron in which its waters 
roared and foamed, I heard the proclamation of 
God's power and glory; and in the rainbow-lustre 
which the sun or moon painted upon its everlast- 
ing spray, I read the promise of His mercy and 
peace. I have sped my gondola along the waters 
of Lake Como, and bathed my brow in the balmy 
atmosphere of the Italian sky ; and as I gazed upon 
the picturesque shores, with their hills and valleys, 
and on that Southern beauty which is spread over all 
like a transparent veil, and saw the evening clouds 
curtain the heavens in deep folds of richest purple, 
fringed with gold by the rays of the setting sun, I felt 
* as if I, too, could linger in this spot of idyllic beauty 
and dream myself upon the threshold of Eden. I 
have stood on the x\lpine peak, the cloud beneath 
me climbing up the mountain side, and heard the 
booming of its artillery under my feet re-echoed 
in louder and louder peals from peak to peak, and 
saw the lightning, like a bright, wild beast start 



66 



SERMONS. 



from its thunder-lair," and when the veil was rent 
and the tempest gone, I looked upon a panorama in 
which grandeur and beauty embraced each other — 
the slope of the mountain covered with brilliant ver- 
dure, and dotted with picturesque cottages ; the cat- 
tle feeding on the Alp, the dark range of fir trees,- 
like a black belt lying round the shoulders of the 
mountain heights, towered over by the colossal 
head, veiled in eternal snow. I stood in the valley, 
the stream of molten snow rushing by my feet, 
bound by the freshest green ; I leaned my face, 
flushed with 'excitement of the scenery, against the 
glacier's w^all, all lost in the contemplation of such 
sublime beauty ; and when darkness fell upon the 
valley, and the light of day had faded, as my eye 
was lifted to the distant peaks, I saw the rays of the 
sun, that had sunk behind them in the west, once 
more kiss their summit, and tinge their vigin veil 
of everlasting snow with the roseate hues of the 
Alpine glow; and I would veil my countenance, as 
Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle, when after 
the great and strong wind, and the earthquake and 
the fire, the Lord passed by him in a still, small 
voice. 

Oh, God has made this earth very beautiful ! 
And standing amidst the wonders of nature, my 
heart swells with adoration of the glory of God, and 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



67 



exults in the manifestations of His handiwork. On 
the wings of gratitude, who would not soar aloft 
and carol his matins of thanksgiving; or, in the 
sense of his all-embracino; Fatherhood, when nig-ht 
draws on and the friendly stars look down upon 
him, welcome their softer beauty with the longing 
devotion of the vesper hymn? 

I have looked upon man, and admired the achieve- 
ments of the master-piece of creation. When I see" 
him grasp the sceptre of this earth, and conquer 
the dominion of nature, search its secrets and com- 
mand its forces, direct the course of the lightning 
and annihilate space, make his pathway in the great 
waters, and send his voice with the speed of thought 
from pole to pole, from the rivers to the ends of the 
earth, and perpetuate the impress of his mind and 
stamp his memory upon the face of this world to 
last as long as the everlasting hills, I rejoice in the 
truth, that God has ''made him but a little lower 
than the angels." 

I have revelled in the treasures of art and litera- 
ture, and gazed upon the works of human genius 
till my imagination was filled with its productions, 
and I felt that there is that in man's mind which is 
akin to creative power, a token of his God-like 
origin. 

I have shared the charms of society, and thank- 



68 



SERMONS. 



fully felt that it is good and pleasant for brethren to 
dwell together in unity; I have tasted the sweets of 
family life, and learned that, let this wilderness of 
earth be ever so dreary, let the waves of trouble roll 
ever so high, let life be ever so full of labour and sor- 
row, there is a green oasis in its desert waste — the 
sanctuary of Home, the peace of the fireside. 

. But still, brethren, with all the bright spots that 
smile on us from this earth, with all the innocent 
joys that are twined, like flov/ers, round the cup 
which this life hands to us, this earth is a wilder- 
ness, this life a scene of trial and suffering, and its 
cup has its bitter dregs. 

It is a wilderness in the eye of that God who 
made it all glorious, but who, for sin, let fall on it 
the blight of His curse. 

It is a wilderness in the eyes of the higher intel- 
ligences, that remember to have chanted the cradle- 
song of its primeval beauty, but who vainly seek 
that beauty now, for the smile of God no longer 
rests on it. 

It is a wilderness, is it not, brethren, even in our 
own eyes? A wilderness and a life of trial and 
suffering. Who can deny that all the glories with 
which it is studded are but the fragments of the 
building, the broken columns of the temple that is 
shattered in pieces; that all the great and lofty 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



69 



traits in man, his mind and heart, are but faint 
traces of the image of God, in which he was cre- 
ated, but which was lost by sin? Aye, if we look 
beneath this outer crust of life, we find its hidden 
misery, and a skeleton in every house ; we see de- 
cay at work and growing apace, until at the fiat of 
God it all becomes its prey. And if we shut out the 
sight of eternity, and the hope of Heaven, and look 
upon this earth alone — alas, it is a valley of dark- 
ness, w^atered by the tears of sorrow, the shadow of 
death brooding over it, with no star to give us light, 
no power to take away its fear! 

And a wilderness, too, where the tempter draws 
nigh, and, " like a roaring lion, walketh about 
seeking whom he can devour." Under the luxu- 
riant growth which hides the deca}^ of time, and 
would lead us, in careless ignorance, to the banks 
of the sea of death, lurks poison! By the siren 
song of pleasure, or the glitter of gold, or the 
phantom of earthly fame, the traveler on the des- 
ert of this earth is made to linger in its oases 
and forget his home above; and, restless under 
the restraint of his probation time, to comniand 
these stones to be made bread! But happiness is 
not gained in this way, peace cannot be bought 
by sin, rest is not for the immoral pilgrim in 
the low^-grounds of this fleeting existence. Yet 



70 



SERMONS. 



happiness is his aim, the innate craving of his soul; 
and oh! if he could but command these stones to 
be made bread! If he could but satisfy his longing 
spirit! He may turn to the joys, or the treasures, 
or the honours of earth and seek relief, but as the 
roaming Arab rests only for a short time to refresh 
himself in the green pastures at the cooling spring 
of the oasis, he soon seeks something better and 
pursues his restless career. Adam dwelt in Eden, 
but the look of lust poisoned his bosom, and he 
thought he could not be happy without the taste 
of that forbidden fruit! And ever since has there 
been the longing for more than this earth can 
bring. Samson rose to glory, the honourable, 
God-befriended protector of Israel, but he looked 
for happiness beyond; alas, he vainly sought it in 
the voluptuous charms of the maid of Philistia! 
Solomon — his whole life w^as one pursuit of happi- 
ness; and a life of enjoyment and power such as 
few mortals ever tasted, brought, after its accom- 
panying sins and idolatries, nought but the com- 
plaint of ''vanity and vexation of spirit." Hazael 
looked upon the riches and power of Ben-Hadad 
and thought if he was King of Syria he would be 
happy; and in that crown he found a curse! The 
rich man in the Gospel hunted for happiness 
through all the avenues of earthly wealth and com- 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



71 



fort, clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sump- 
tuously every day. But he had to die, and awoke 
in hell! 

Oh, brethren, these stones will not be bread I 
These barren wastes of earth afford no rest for the 
immortal spirit; its choicest summer fruits no food 
to stay the cravings of an infinite appetite ! 

But is there no rest? and no relief? and no 
joy and no bliss? no food to satish' the hungry 
soul? no flood to quench its parching thirst? 
Thank God, there is! Rest for the weary and 
heavv laden, relief for all our suffering's, jov for the 
mournful, and bliss for the wretched. There is 
food which shall not fail — the heavenh' manna in 
God's word; there is a well — whosoever drinketh of 
it shall never thirst again ; there is a healing flood 
poured from Emmanuel's side; there is a gain — con- 
tentment and godliness, the riches which shall not 
see corruption; there is happiness — happiness in the 
love of God; there is peace — peace which the world 
has not given and that the world cannot take away : 
peace in the reconciliation with the Father, in the 
atonement of the Onlv Begotten I there is a wand 
Zi'hose magic touch sJiall cliaugc these stones into 
bread — the religion of Clirist ! "Man shall not live 
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of God." 



72 



SERMONS. 



TJie word of truth, in which the behever's* mind 
shall find rest in the search after the infinite. 

The zuord of promise, v^h'ich shall raise his soul 
fi'om every depth of woe, in hope that maketh not 
ashamed. 

The zuord of duty, which dries up tke source of 
all his wretchedness, his sins; and opens the sluices 
of all happiness in the obedience of love ! 

This is the word which we bring you in the 
Gospel; this the bread and wine to which we invite 
your yearning souls- ''without money and Avithout 
price!" The^'e is no happiness without it. 

Follow me to that stately mansion wdiich stands 
in yon lordly estate. Pass through its park and 
pleasure grounds, which betoken the wealth of the 
owner and cause many a beholder to sigh for such 
happiness; enter the lofty portals, crowned with the 
old family armiS and see the men-servants and 
maid-servants, and the ornaments and conveniences 
which gold has here collected. Pass on through 
the spacious hall, tread lightly over those rich car- 
pets, which seem to yield to the pressure of your 
foot; pass through those drawing-rooms, where 
splendour vies with taste; pass on, — and tread 
more softly — for I lead you to the dying couch of 
the wealthy owner. There he lies, his form ema- 
ciated, his eye sunk, his strength failing. There 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



7J 



he lies, and around him are the tokens of his wealth 
and earthly happiness. What though the gold glit-^ 
ter in the purse which lies beside him — enough to 
purchase all the comforts of this earth ; w^hat though, 
the richest curtains shade his bed of softest down ; 
what though every wish and every want be sup- 
plied, and love, a mother's love, a wife's devotion,, 
bend over the wasting form? Oh! unless Christ 
be in that death-chamber, Christ stancing by that 
bed of suffering, these stones shall not be made 
bread. Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God." 

Follow me to yonder alley, and wade through its 
filth and its atmosphere reeking with im^purity, and 
go with me to that haunt of poverty, where every 
sight betokens want and suffering; rap against that 
tottering door which cannot keep out the chill and 
killing w^ind, and enter the room where the poor 
is dying. His bed mouldering straw; no com- 
fort near, no human aid ; his frame shaking under 
that racking cough, and humanity enduring its last 
extremities. And lo! in that uplifted eye, and those 
folded hands, those moving lips, that peaceful frame, 
you will see that if Christ be there, Christ to soothe 
and support, Christ with his blood to cleanse his 
soul from guilt and make it clean, Christ with His 
7 



74 



SERMONS. 



spirit to raise the soul to heaven and make it meet 
for the inheritance of the saints in hcrht: though all 
that this earth can give be absent, and our death- 
bed as solitary as the hermit's cell, all these stones 
are made bread I ''Man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." 

Oh, beloved brethren ! ye who are still straying 
in the wilderness, still pursuing its earthly phan- 
toms and its grovelling aims — but who cannot stay 
there long; for the death-bed must come, whether 
in affluence, or in want, both to the good and the 
evil, the believer and the unbeliver — follow me now^ 
when God calls to you so urgently, to Him who 
alone has the words of everlaslting life, who alone 
can change these stones to bread, and give you 
peace and rest. Follow me to Christ, and this wil- 
derness shall blossom as the rose ; streams of water 
shall burst out of the dry ground, and the tree of 
life be before you with healing in its leaves. 

To the true Christian, that lives with God and 
abides with the Saviour, all around him becomes 
heavenly food, to strengthen and bless his soul; yea^. 
every want of earth, and every pain and sorrow — 
channels that bear his ark into the haven of bliss. 
Religion turns the sands of the desert into gold,, 
and its stones into the bread of heaven. That sun 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



75 



above him tells him of a nobler sun, the sun of right- 
eousness, that has risen over him with healing in its 
wings ; and though clouds may obscure it and dark- 
ness veil his horizon, behind that cloud he knows 
there watches a Father's eye, there beats a Father's 
heart, that yearns for his ransomed soul. The air 
he breathes, and the wind that fans his cheek, they 
are fraught with the promises and comforts and 
helps of God's Holy Spirit, by whose power he has 
been born again ; which bloweth where it listeth, 
•and sends his voice of love into his heart. *'The 
earth with all its joys, the vault of heaven with all 
its wonders, the marvels and the beauties of created 
nature, the infant's cry, the wife's smile, the parent's 
grave, the bed of sickness, the voice of God's min- 
ister, the counsel of a friend, the reproof of an ene- 
my, wrath and mercy, sorrow and joy, shame and 
hope, all thoughts, all passions, all delights, what- 
ever ^stirs the mortal frame," all to him are vocal 
-with God's Spirit, and tell him ^'to his great and 
endless comfort," that 

Man sJiall not live by bread alone, bnt by every 
word that proceedetJi out of the month of God.'' 



76 



SERMONS. 



In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt su?^ely die. 
Genesis ii. 17. 

]\Ian, as a creature, is subject to the supreme law 
of all creation: perfect obedience to the will of the 
Creator. As a moral agent, he is free to choose, 
and, at least as far as the exertion of his will goes, 
able to obe\' and disobey the laws of God. The 
apparent difference between the free will of the 
moral agent- and the law of creature-obedience, 
which is without exception and imperatively bind- 
ing, is harmonized in his accoitntability , by which 
his free will and choice is subordinated to God's 
law at the peril of his soul — the penalty of ever- 
lasting ruin. 

But there are peculiar features in the nature and 
position of man which distinguish him from pther 
moral agents. W^e know, in all, but three classes 
of these: First, there are those who have never 
fallen, but retained, and, no doubt, developed in 
greater perfection and blessedness, their original 
state of uprightness, having given themselves en- 
tirely to God and His service — these are the an- 
gels of God in Heaven. Then there are those who 
have irrevocably fallen, who have opposed their 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 



77 



^viIl and self to God in a manner unknown to us 
indeed, but which has thrust them forever out of 
God's sight, and confined to everlasting ruin — 
these are the devil and his angels in Hell. The 
third class occupies a middle ground, linked to 
both, and yet distinct from either. They are fallen 
indeed by disobedience and under the curse of 
God, banished from His sight; but they are not 
shut up in Hell, and not beyond the voice of 
mercy. Suspended between Heaven and Hell, as 
though it were in view of both, and destined either 
to the one or to the other sphere: they are placed 
upon this earth for a short span of time — but oh! 
one of infinite importance! a time of probation, of 
preparation either for Heaven or Hell. This is the 
position of man — a fallen moral agent, but with the 
invitation of the Gospel before him. 

The difference is not in the terms offered ; the 
same law of entire dedication to God has glorified 
the angels who obeyed, and damned the rebel spir- 
its. The same law lies across the path of man. 
The difference is this: the choice is made, and 
made for all eternity in the case of angels and 
devils; the first dwell with God in everlasting light, 
the others are cast into outer darkness. But light 
and darkness alternate with man, for in his case the 
choice is still to be made. Indeed, it was made. 



78 



SERMONS. 



and made for death, and laid us under the curse — - 
but oh, the undeserved mercy of God! He offered 
us a second choice, and to make that second choice 
possible, took the blood of His Son in expiation 
of our sin! Oh, stand in awe, be humble, tremble 
all ye that are living under the blessings of this 
mercy: ^'For if God spared not the angels that 
sinned," but cast them down to Hell — to whom no 
second choice was given, but who are reserved in 
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judg- 
ment of the great day, because they kept not their 
first estate; for whom no Saviour died, and the Son 
of God became not incarnate (for verily He took not. 
on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him 
the seed of Abraham !) : What condemnation can. 
be great enough, what hell deep enough? for those 
who, after all these mercies, in spite of all this long- 
suffering and entreaty, notwithstanding all the hu- 
miliation, the suffering, the dying groan, the cruel 
death of God's own Son, notwithstanding all the 
strivings of the Holy Ghost and the constraining 
love of Jesus, again choose wrong; once more per- 
sist in their rebellion and deny the homage due to 
God, not only by right of creation, but, now, by 
right of redemption. 

God created moral agents for high and holy pur- 
poses, and for a participation in His glory, which 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 



79 



none but beings intelligent and of free volition 
could enjoy and were fit to bear. An eternity of 
glory and bliss was intended for them — the prom- 
ised gift for their free acknowledgment of His 
power, wisdom and goodness, and their freely 
chosen resolution of devoting themselves to the 
lofty objects for which they w^ere created. A test 
was necessary, where freedom of choice and sepa- 
rate volition were the peculiar features in the con- 
stitution of the subjects of these intended privileges 
and honours. How the loyalty of the angels was 
tested, we know not; we only know that the test 
was stood, and the surrender of self and every power 
made to God, by a sufficient number to fill the vast 
courts of Heaven with a holy and a blessed host. 
But that all others were by their failure disabled 
from ever serving God in holiness, excluded from 
His presence, and punished with His wrath. 

But of the dealings with man, we have a full and 
authentic record. God had made him upright,, 
created in His own likeness, and placed him oa 
the new-created earth, resplendent with a beauty 
that had not known the spoiler's hand, and was un-^ 
touched by the curse. He gave it to him for his por-^ 
tion, to rule over and subdue it and have dominion 
over every living thing, and gave him every herb 
and every tree. All her kingdoms were his tributa-^ 



8o 



SERMONS. 



ries, all her riches, her stores of wealth and com- 
fort, all her attractions were for him. ^'AU this," so 
God said in substance, I give it with a liberal hand, 
a token of My love. Only be faithful to Me, and 
give Me thine heart!" But vain the love of God — 
the blessings which He showered down on man; 
vain the prospect of immortal life and glory, the 
threat of death with which He tried to guard His 
law and secure the loyalty of His creature. The 
test was but a trifle, one single forbidding com- 
mand— "all else is thine! Be Mine; one tree in the 
middle of the garden — the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil— thou shalt not eat of it. In the 
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die!" 
Ah ! if Adam had but duly realized the existence 
of a holy God, and that He is a rewarder of those 
who diligently seek Him; if he had but had that 
general faith which is *'the substance of things 
hoped for — the evidence of things not seen" — the 
great lever in every choice from motives; if he had 
had regard to the invisible future, and by faith ap- 
prehended its glory, and the reality of God's curse, 
and the infinite woe of banishment from Him who 
is the source of life and happiness, he could never 
have yielded to temptation ! That one tree could 
not have become his all; the lust kindled in his heart 
could not have grown so gigantically as to hide 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 



8i 



from his sight God and Heav^en, and immortality 
and glory, and to cover with its shadow the open- 
ing pit of destruction. But his lust overcame his 
faith and brought forth sin. He no sooner felt his 
power of disobeying God (which became clear to 
him only when a law was laid down,) than he w^or- 
shipped Self and burnt the innocence of his soul as 
incense to his own gratification. He fell from God! 
He fell from God and under the sentence of death, 
w^hich is the wages of sin! He fell from God! and 
with him fell his race, made in his likeness. ''By 
one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin; and so death passed unto all men — for that all 
have sinned ! " 

The test had not been stood by Adam; Self had 
become his god; Heaven was lost! But oh, the 
depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and know- 
ledge of God, and the inexhaustible fount of His 
love ! Adam's next step would have been to pluck 
the fruit from the tree of Immortality, and thus have 
sealed his fate of deserved woe unalterably. Enter- 
ing immortal life under the curse of his transgres- 
sion, it must have clung to him through eternity, 
and forever exiled him and all his race from God. 
But thanks to God, and to His love to us in 
Jesus Christ: the expulsion from Eden prevented it. 
Death, the death of the body, was bidden to step in 



82 



SERMONS. 



to suspend everlasting misery upon a new, but now 
ultimate trial. A short life of probation began for 
his descendants. In that life, the choice, and the 
same choice, is once more placed before us. We 
are wooed to obedience by the same promises, and 
promises of greater glory. We are warned off from 
every sin, as from the forbidden fruit, by the same 
threat : In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die." 



There stands in the garden-spot where the lines 
of each man'S life have fallen, the tree by which he 
shall know good and evil. It bears the forbidden 
fruit, and God saith : In the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die ! " 

It is not every sin which proves the forbidden fruit, 
and the test of good and evil to every man. Each 
one has his own forbidden fruit ; you have yours, 
and you yours, and I have mine. The same law 
of God is, indeed, the law of all ; the same sins are 
forbidden to all, and the plucking of any one for- 
bidden fruit brings death to the soul, unless Christ's 
blood is applied for its atonement, and its love over- 
come by repentance. But all men are not tempted 
by the same sins, each one has his own tempta- 
tion, and if they yield to it their souls, they must 
surely die. The candid man will not be tempted to 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 



83 



lie, but his forbidden fruit grows from another root; 
he may be overbearing in his treatment, and arro- 
gant in his judgment of his brother-man. The Hb- 
eral-handed benefactor of the poor may safely pass 
the tree whose fruit might tempt another to the sin 
of steahng; but his ambition may nurse the love of 
self and pride into enmity agamst God. The As- 
cetic will lend a deaf ear to the siren-song of revelry 
and forbidden joys, but he may cheat his neighbor 
in an over-reachino; barrain. The naturallv timid 
will not dip his hands in his brother's blood, but his 
forbidden fruit may be the sin of evil-speaking and 
slandering. 

With all the multiplicity of sins, however, breth- 
ren, there are some great temptations, to one or the 
other of which nearly all are liable ; and well were 
it for us, if, whenever looking towards them, we 
could also read the label of God's own hand upon 
them — forbidden fruit." Such are lust, pride, cov- 
etousness — the flesh, the world, and the devil. 

Lust, which embraces both the grosser immorali- 
ties and the more dazzling vanities of the life of this 
world. It lies deep in the corrupt heart of man, 
and the open act is only the display of what has 
been the state of the person in secret. Here hangs 
your foi-bidden fruit, especially my youthful hearers, 
with passions wild and blood hot, and a mind yet 



84 



SERMONS. 



undisciplined by the sterner duties and the sadder 
lessons of this life. The tempter may come to you 
gently and with a smile, and hide from your eyes 
the end to which his enticements lead ; he will fur- 
nish you with specious pretexts, and lure you by 
the example of such as you would not think badly 
of. But the guile of the adversary is in all this,, 
who is plying you with the same wiles by which he 
ruined Eve. He got her to look at the tree," that it 
was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise," till she took 
of the fruit thereof and ate. Alas ! how soon did 
she learn to know the good she had lost, and the 
evil she had chosen. Oh ! flee, flee from the tempter 
and flee from the temptation, and hear God say, "in 
the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely 
die !" Look not at the red wine when it glows in 
the glass. The devil has more to do with the gross 
and beastly vice of intoxication than you may an- 
ticipate. Like all the sins of the flesh, it enslaves 
the whole man. It prepares the way for a multi- 
tude of sins, and links corruption with corrup- 
tion; it casts a blight over all his actions and 
deprives him at last almost of physical ability 
to resist, ruins his respectability here, and finally 
drags him irresistibly down into the gulf of woe, 
which he saw yawn before him but could not 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 85 

avoid. Flee youthful lusts I abstain from vices with 
the names of which I cannot desecrate this house ! 
There is nothing more dangerous in all your life 
than those things which feed the impure passions 
of carnal man. They are insidious as they are 
sweet: they gain upon you with gigantic strides 
and surround you as with invisible coils till }'ou are 
caught and try too late to retrace your steps. Pass 
by the tree that tempts you to the forbidden 
fruit, lest its poison destroy the life of your soul ! 
There are snares and dangers in the vanities and tri- 
fling amusements of the world ; its fashion and its 
ways which have brought ruin to many a soul, 
which have eaten out every spark of vital religion 
from the professor who dared to tamper with such 
forbidden fruits ; they have kept many a young per- 
son from adoring the Saviour, and led many a pro- 
fessor back into the world ; and their end zuas death! 

Pride ^ which makes a god of self, and thereby 
lowers us into slavery to the world and its ways ; 
for it seeks distinction, honour among men, and flings 
aside the honour with God, because that rests only 
upon the humble and contrite heart. Pride, which 
genders unbelief and self-righteousness, which nar- 
rows the heart and never allows the soul to expand 
in wide-spread, generous love for our fellow-crea- 
tures ! Numberless are the forms in which it is 
8 



86 SERMONS. 

displayed, countless the deeds to which it may fur- 
nish the motive, and often what would be most law- 
ful and acceptable and noble, becomes forbidden fruit, 
because of the touch of the hand of pride. It ogles 
the young, aspiring soul ; it spreads, like the deadly 
Upas-tree, over the life of the man who feels his 
full powers and surveys his sphere of far-reaching 
influence ; it separates the soul from God and 
Christ, and thus from life eternal. Like Lucifer, 
the proud man will be hurled from all his dreams of 
grandeur ; a momentary meteor, he will shoot down 
into outer darkness, and learn too late that the day 
in which he feasted his soul with this forbidden fruit 
he doomed himself to death ! 

Covetoiisiiess I Of all sins the most insinuating, the 
most growing, which will strengthen with our days 
and be the portion of the soul that has outlived the 
temptation of all other sins, and tighten the grasp of 
the old man as he stoops toward the grave: it is the 
most hopeless, as it is the basest idolatry. You 
cannot serve God and mammon. Where your 
treasure is, there shall your heart be also. The love 
of gain and filthy lucre — alas, how many souls are- 
burning on that altar; and souls that, perhaps, 
deceive themselves with hopes of heaven I If a 
man be a drunkard, an adulterer, or a liar; if he 
rob his neighbor, oppress the poor, or deal unjustly,. 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 8/ 
• 

lie must give up his pretences to religion ; the disci- 
pHne of the Church, as well as the world, can reach 
him and cut him off. But a man may love his gold 
and at the same time keep his standing in the 
Church, and often only when he knocks at the gate 
of the Church in Heaven will he learn his doom — 
that Christ has never known him ; he has plucked 
and glutted his soul with the forbidden fruit, and 
Tiaving left his riches this side of the grave, eternity 
is one long and 7iever-ending deatli ! 

Oh, brethren! is it not true that for all of us there 
is found in this life a forbidden fruit? And how 
important the lesson w^e must learn here to give it 
2ip^ or lue shall never see life. How solemn to 
think of the import of this life of probation on 
earth ! Heaven and hell meet here. Eternal hap- 
piness or eternal woe take their beginning in the 
souls of men here in this brief life on earth. We 
must forego the forbidden fruit that tempts the car- 
nal mind, or we must die. If we pass from this 
earth without having gained this victory, we take 
with us no hope! All the power that is in Christ's 
atonement is of no avail to the soul that still feeds 
on the forbidden fruit. The love of Christ must 
liave won our heart for Him, and made us strive 
against the love of sin, or the sentence of death 
follows us into the other world. Alas ! for the mo- 



88 



SERMONS. 



mentary enjoyment of the forbidden fruit, to cast 
away eternal life and the loving kindness of God, 
which is its highest glory! 

Oh, brethren! hovr soon may death arrest our 
career on earth? The graves are yet fresh in our 
midst, where we have deposited the remains of 
many who Avere dear to us as dear can be, and many^ 
of whom were cut off in the flush of youth and by 
a sudden visitation. Have }^ou never known God's 
sore punishments to pass through the land? The 
pestilence that, with its poisoned scythe, mows 
down the young and the old. The war which has 
bleached our fields with bones and swept off its 
thousands into an untimely grave, which we still 
decorate in memory of our dead? The wind that 
has often come to us across the watery waste with a 
mournful sound, bearing to our trembling hearts the 
last notes of the requium it sung over multitudes, 
multitudes that now sleep at the bottom of the sea? 
The famine that but now has sent its starvation-cry 
across the ocean from a sister-isle? Believe me, be- 
loved brethren, Avhatever the tragedy be which sends 
the shuddering thrill through the land — railroad 
wrecks, sunken ships, fields of blood, the poison- 
ous pestilence, the devouring flame, or the hollow- 
cheeked famine — not one soul fell a victim to their 
fatal power but he carried with him his check upon 



FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 



89 



the other world, a draft upon heaven or draft upon 
hell, payable one moment after death," and by the 
love of the forbidden fruit or the love of Christ, all 
have been judged of God. 

Men look with horror upon Adam's sin. They 
cannot understand how he could pluck that fruit 
when God had said, In the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." But in that ye judge 
him, ye condemn yourselves ! Every one who does 
not forsake his sins and trust in Jesus, would have 
acted just like him or worse — is acting, brethren, 
worse than he. '1 ls true, Adam was uncorrupt be- 
fore the fall, but in the Gospel we offer you a heal- 
ing balm for that corruption. The motives for 
giving up your sins and turning to God, and dedi- 
cating yourselves to His will and service, are now 
infinitely greater than they were for him. God was 
his Creator, but He is your Redeemer! The blood 
of all his cJiildrcn viay be upon his head^ but 011 

YOURS is THE BLOOD OF ChRIST! 



90 



SERMONS. 



Tekel — thou art weighed in the balances , and art founa- 
wanting. 

Daniel v. 27. 

The grandeur of the ancient world is passed, 
away. But its traces are left on the surface of the 
earth, and its influence is perpetuated in the civili- 
zation of our day. 

The traveler on the Nile beholds the narrow val- 
ley studded with the monuments of her former 
glor>^ — the pyramid, the obelisk and the sphinx 
and in her mountain sides still stand the tombs 
which, in their beds of rock, embrace the em- 
balmed generations of the men that lived millen- 
niums ago. — Jerusalem, which was visited with a 
destruction, the like of which is not recorded in 
the annals of history, still lures the pious pilgrim to 
her sacred mount. — Athens, amidst her broken 
pillars, her ruined temples and her mutilated statues,, 
struggles into a new civilization, as the withered 
tree will often clothe its naked branches with a 
second growth of verdure. — Rome, which oftener 
than any other city saw the conqueror within her 
walls, and was sacked and burned repeatedly by the 
ancient and the modern barbarian, still proudly rears 



WEIGHED IX THE BALAXXES. 



91 



her throne upon the seven hills. Ancient Rome 
still lives in her laws, which form the nucleus of 
all our codes of law; and modern Rome shouts 
^'vivas'' to the new king that has once more united 
Italy under her sway; and papal Rome wields her 
sceptre over more souls than ever bowed to the 
power of her Caesars. 

But Babylon the great is fallen and is no more f 
She has left no ''footprints on the sands of time." 
Posterity owes her nothing but the lesson of retribti- 
tive justice upon the wickedness of man. The plains 
of Shijiar are a desolation ! 

As the traveler approaches it from the East, on 
the road from Bagdad, and stands upon the earthen 
ramparts which tradition and historical speculation 
assume to be the most northern remains of the an- 
cient city, there spreads before him a boundless 
plain. The Euphrates, with its dark belt of ever- 
green palms, which flowed through the middle of 
the vast metropolis, still rolls its flood along; but it 
winds through a naked and hideous waste. The 
foot of man does not rest there, the hand of 
man does not build there. Where once stood the 
city that covered more than the area of London, 
replete with palaces and gardens, and filled with 
riches such as now fill only the dreams of fiction ; 
where smiled a country that gave her harvests al- 



92 



SERMONS. 



most without labour and bloomed as a garden, dis- 
sected with the numerous canals, which sent the 
fertilizing waters of her glorious river into all its 
parts ; where was the mart of the world, and roads 
of traffic centred, that combined the trade of the 
North and the P^ast and the West; where was the 
meeting-place of caravans, and where ships en- 
livened the harbour, that came laden with the gold 
and choicest spices of the coasts of Persia and Hin- 
dostan: there now all is one great wilderness and 
solitude; "owls start from the scanty thickets and 
the foul jackal skulks through her furrows." Truly,, 
"the glory of kingdoms and the beauty of the Chal- 
deans' excellency is as when God overthrew Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Wild beasts of the desert lie there, 
and their houses are full of doleful creatures; and 
the wild beasts of the islands cry in their desolate 
houses, and the dragons in their pleasant places,. 
for her day is come!' 

But the text brings us back to the days when 
Babylon w^as yet standing, and glorying in all her 
beauty and wealth, "the Lady of Kingdoms." "Is 
not this the great Babylon that I have builded?" 

Only a few decenniums had passed since Nebu- 
chadnezzar raised her to the pinnacle of glory and 
made her the mistress of nations. Judea fell before 
her, and Jerusalem sent her captive sons to the 



WEIGHED IX THE BALANCES. 



93 



rivers of Babylon. Egypt was defeated by her 
proud warriors, and Phenicia crouched under her 
yoke. Like a new city, old Babylon rose from her 
former position under the ambitious monarch and 
his queen. The temple of Belus was finished : the 
new palace erected, whose circuit was equal to that 
of a moderate-sized city ; and the gallant king, to 
please his Median queen, recalled her mountain 
scenery, in the verdant terraces which rose four 
hundred feet above the ground, the wonder of the 
world. The spoil of vanquished countries loaded 
her treasury; her commerce gathered the finest 
wools and shawls from Cashmere; emeralds, jas- 
pers and other precious stones from Bactra; gold 
and gold dust from the Indies ; and extended 
through Phenician traders and the ships of Tarshish 
down the western coast of India, and brought from 
the island of Ceylon the rarest spices and choicest 
pearls. Mechanical arts and mathematical science, 
astronomy and astrology, the art of working in 
metal, and her woolen manufactures, which wove 
those splendid Babylonian robes (so far famed for 
delicacy of texture and brilliancy of colour): all pre- 
sented a state of civilization which the East had not 
seen before. But, alas! she bore within her the 
curse of luxury and effeminacy. Her very reli- 
gion—the religion of Belus and Alylitta — only min- 



94 



SERMONS. 



istered to the grossest passions of the human heart. 
The effeminacy and hcentiousness of her inhabi- 
tants beggars description, but makes it plain how a 
few years could lay the proud city in the dust. 

Times had changed since the death of the great 
king. Her power sank, whilst her luxury and 
oppression continued. And her lofty walls and 
brazen gates were but a poor safeguard against the 
new foe, that brought his hardy soldiers before 
them. In her security she fell; in the midst of rev- 
elry, her doom overtook her I 



It was a festive day in Babylon. Belshazzar, 
the king, made a feast to a thousand of her lords.'' 

Up the broad flight of steps, guarded right and 
left by colossal statues of crouching lions, the guests 
hurry towards the grand portal, a magnificent gate- 
way, formed by the towering statues of winged bulls 
with human faces and crowned with the royal tiara. 
The first entrance led to others of a similar con- 
struction, until the great hall is reached where the 
feast is spread on tables of gold and silver, and ivory 
and costly wood, with cups most curiously carved 
or covered with inscriptions. The tiles they tread 
on are filled with the records of the kingdom ; and 
on the walls, where the bricks are covered with 
plaster, and the richest colours— tastily distrib- 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANXES. 



95 



uted — divide and frame the paintings, their coun- 
try's glory is represented in triumphal marches, 
and trains of captives suing for pardon, or tributa- 
ries bringing gifts. The hall itself stretches along 
to an immense length, and at the end is the great 
platform, where, in distant magnificence, reposes the 
king ''to drink wine before his lords." The whole 
is lighted with lamps and chandeliers. The lighted 
hall and the illuminated gardens call the people to 
the courts of the palace, and spread the feast from 
the lords through the masses of the frivolous in- 
habitants. 

And now the music animates the festive assem- 
bly, and the wine glows in the glass, and the pas- 
sion is fired, and the drunken shouts are heard; 
and the dancers rise — the women whom Babylonian 
custom admitted to their feasts; who, having long 
laid aside their modesty, now free themselves of the 
encumbrance of the flowing robe, and madden the 
excited senses of the luxurious king and lords by 
their attractive art. 

Behold a Babylonian BaccJianal ! What though 
the Mede and Persian lie before the city: the high 
walls of Babylon shall laugh at them ! What though 
prophecies have rung in the ears of the revelers : 
their gods, their gods that speak to them from the 
sculptured walls, and point them to the painted 



96 



SERMONS. 



triumphs and the prosperity and days of mirth and 
revelr}' their favour had bestowed upon them, their 
pfods of eold and silver and brass shall overrule the 
predictions and the threatenings of that stern Je- 
hovah ! 

Bring hither the golden and the silver vessels 

from Jehovah's temple, and let Babylonia's king 
and princes, their wives and concubines, offer them 
in festive glee to Babylonia's gods!" 

And the- golden vessels that were taken out of 
the temple of the house of God, which was at Jeru- 
salem, were t^rought, and the king and his princes, 
his wives and his concubines, drank in them. And 
the shouts rose higher, and the laughter grew^ 
wilder, and blasphemies and obscenities mingled 
with their mirth, as they drank wine and praised 
the gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron,, 
of wood and of stone. 

Ah ! brethren, how many a Babylonian Bacchanal 
is w^itnessed on this earth ! "The harp and the viol, 
the tabret and pipe and wine are in their feasts," 
but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither 
consider the operation of His hand." How many 
lives are nothing but a Babylonian Bacchanal, 
" God being not in all their thoughts ! " Yes,, 
brethren, many a Belshazzar's feast is met with,, 
with its wild devotion to the glee of earth and the 



WEIGHED IX THE BALANCES. 



97 



mad excitement of the fleeting moment; whilst 
around the thoughtless revelers, as the ]\Iedes and 
Persians around the walls of Babylon, are the ar- 
mies of the avenging angels of God's justice I 

But hark ! What means this sudden, piercing cry? 
and now — the dead silence which succeeds the noise 
and laughter ? What means this sudden change ? 
Behold the kincr, how he starts I and his roval 
mitre falls from his head, and his hair seems to 
stand on end; his eyes roll wildly, and ever turn to 
that bright wall, lighted by the chandelier 1 And 
his color has changed "and he begins to tremble;" 
the joints of his limbs are loosed, and his knees 
smite one against another. See the pallor that 
spreads over all faces, and the trembling lip and 
staring eye — staring on that bright wall, lighted by 
the chandelier! 

In that same hour came forth fingers as of a 
man's hand, and wrote over against the chandelier 
upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace." 

Oh king ! in vain dost thou appeal to the wis- 
dom of thy astrologers, thy Chaldeans and sooth- 
sayers — it is a message from God luito thee ! and 
none but His prophet shall read that writing. 

There stands the young prophet, the despised son 
of the despised captives of Judea, who, disdaining the 
king's gifts, his scarlet robe and golden necklace 
9 



98 



SERMONS. 



and high office, boldly read his doom : Tekel — thou 
art weighed m the balances and art found wanting 

In that night Belshazzar, the king of the Chal- 
deans, was slain. In that night the strong walls 
and brazen gates of Babylon ceased their protec- 
tion ; the faithful river ceased its service. Accord- 
ing to prophecy it was turned into another channel, 
and the army of the Medes and Persians walked 
through its dry bed into the city and surprised the 
drunken revelers. Inthat night Babylon fell ; Darius, 
the Median, took the kingdom, and Belshazzar, 
the king^ was slain!' 

Brethren, have you ever had thoughts of such a 
night? Ever had forebodings of such a night? 
Have you ever known persons who had been con- 
tented to live without God " in the world, when they 
saw the handwriting of death, send for the minister, 
the prophet of God, to smooth their dying pillow ? 
And ever doubted the probability of a peacful death 
after a wicked life ? Ever feared that the awful 
word ^'wanting'' should be uttered over the soul 
that had begun to think of God and repentance 
only when life was over? Have you not, in that 
dread moment, understood the poet's description — 

How the frantic soul 
Raves round the walls of her clay-tenement, 
Runs to each avenue and shrieks for help, 
But shrieks in vain ! 



WEIGHED IN THE BALAN'CES. 



99 



There is a painting of solemn import found in the 
Campo Santo of Pisa, The Triumph of Death," by 
Andrea Orgagna. It dates from the second half 
of the fourteenth century, and is an affecting repre- 
seniatioji of tlie trinvipJi of death over all the splen- 
dour and grandeur of earth and z-corldliness. To 
the right of this large painting is a group of 
men and women, engaged in music and conversa- 
tion. The flowers with which the ground is cov- 
ered, the arbour of the myrtle and the orange in 
which they are gathered, as well as the amorettes 
that hover round them, are all intended to paint the 
soft, luxurious life of earthly pleasure and the sweets 
of love. But, unperceived by them, there hovers close 
to that idyllic arbour the messenger of deatli, with 
wrings full of eyes and the scythe lifted for action ; this 
is deatli nriexpected ! — To the left a noble hunting 
party — king and queen, and knights and squires 
and dames on prancing steeds, with falcons on their 
glove and the hounds following. But suddenly the 
horses start and turn ; before them lie tliree open 
coffins — they are riding into mouldering dust. This is 
the zuarning of death. — In the middle of the paint- 
ing death is at loork ; and king or queen, noble or 
low, bishop or priest, are lying on the ground, their 
souls escaping with their last breath in the shape 
of little babes, and the angels, good or bad, waiting 



100 



SERMONS. 



to receive their own, and carrying these to the man- 
sions of heaven, or hurhng those into devouring 
flames. 

Now, my beloved brethren, are you of those w^hom 
death shall surprise unprepared ? or w^ho will take 
his warning nozu while time is yet given you ? He 
comes, He surely comes to all of us, and stretches 
us low in the indiscriminate summons he gives to 
the good and to the evil. Oh ! wicked man, thou 
shalt surely die ! " is said to all. Is it not probable 
that the words of the prophet, This year thou 
shalt die," are said to some of us ? And is it not 
absolutely certain that the day will come, when 
God shall say to him that is only thinking of heap- 
ing up treasures and guarding earthly riches, or to 
him that forgets eternity in the pursuit of passing 
pleasures and earthly fame: Thou fool, this night 
thy soul shall be required of thee." 

Oh ! if we could but see the invisible hand which 
now is writing our doom upon these walls ; if we 
could ascend and see the balance that is held in 
the hand of the Judge who judgeth righteously, and 
take warning, all take warning, e?'e it is too late^ and 
ere the sentence wanting " is irrevocably pro- 
nounced. 

Let the eye of faith transport us, brethren, from 
the hall of Belshazzar and that awful handwriting 



WEIGHED IX THE BALANCES. 



lOI 



to the hall above and to the real balance. Behold 
how the whole race of Adam, in the long line in 
which it has traveled for six thousand years over 
this earth, stands there, and all are zuetghed, z^'eighed 
in the balances I 

Behold! they come from the fireside, they come 
from the tented field; they come from the hermit's 
secluded cell, they come from the public mart. 
They start from the bed of luxury, they start with 
the sweat on their brow. They are summoned in 
youth, they are called in old age ; from the work- 
shop, the ball-room, the study, the bench — they 
must follow the merciless call. The promising 
youth, the hopeful aspirant, the loving mother, the 
only son — death summons all. The good and the 
bad, those prepared and those unprepared — all must 
come. The miser is called away from his gold, the 
drunkard from his cups, the laborer from h.s honest 
work, the pious from their prayers, the king from 
his throne, the prisoner from his dungeon, the rich 
or the poor, the happy or the unhappy — all, all 
are found in that long procession, and all are iveiglied 
in the balances. 

Those balances ! They are held in the hands of 
Eternal Justice, and the book of God's law lies in 
one scale. Come on ye cliildren of men and fill the 
other scale ; ye vuist be z^'eig/ied I 



I02 



SERMONS. 



There comes the murderer, the thief, the drunk- 
ard, the adulterer and slanderer; and fain they would 
turn from that dread balance, for with blanching 
cheeks and trembling lips they confess that they 
bring nought to God but crimes. 

There goes the miser with his gold, but ere he 
reaches the balance it has crumbled into dust. 

There go the great of the earth with their glory, 
but it is dissolved in air ere they can be weighed. 

There come those whose only pursuit on earth 
was pleasure, and behold it is turned to remorse; 
who lived in lust and revelry, and scorpions scourge 
their souls. 

Here goes the man of learning, the student of this 
world's philosophy. Ah! as he approaches that 
balance he sighs that he forgot to seek tliat zuisdoin 
zuhich is frovi above ^ wliicli makes z^dse tuito salvation. 

There comes tJie moral and the ttpriglit mari of 
the zvorld, that has been honest and dealt fairly and 
lived decently; but oh! as he looks upon that law 
and sees its terrible character of holiness revealed^ 
he dares not throw his morality in the scale, he 
stands convicted: Wa7iti7ig / 

Lo ! there goes one, and the clamour of the multi- 
tude follows him, whom he hath fed and warmed; 
he has been generous and benevolent, and given his 
goods to feed the poor. There goes one that gave 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANXES. 



103 



his body to be burned, and his good and glorious 
deeds are thrown into the scale — wanting! 

Bill make room ! There comes the CImstain pro- 
fesser, and boldly lays his profession of religion in 
the vacant scale. Depart! empty professer^ thou 
art found zvayiting ! 

Again one comes and lays his prayers there — 
wanting ! 

Or lays his tears of penitence into the balance — 
wanting ! 

Or puts his good intentions there — zuanting ! 

His pious aspirations — wanting ! 

His sincerity and struggles — zcanting ! 

Ah ! brethren, learn — learn while time is given 
you, that nothing you can bring of your own can 
turn the scales and save you from the sentence 
waiiting !'' And that none, and not the best of 
your good works, can meet the claims of the law 
of God and balance the scales! 



Behold I there comes one, with his eyes cast 
down and with the sense of utter nothingness in 
his heart; that brings no ransom in his hand and 
pleads no action of his own. He comes with the 
confession of unworthiness, the acknowledgment of 
his just condemnation. He comes, and all-despair- 
ing of himself he dips Jus ]ia7id into the stream that 



104 



SERMONS. 



flows from Jesus' side^ and lays His bloody the blood 
that bought him^ in the scale — : and the scene is 
changed! the law is outweighed! The blood of 
Jesus, and that blood alone, has met its claims, has 
borne its curse and blotted out its handwriting ; 
and the angels of heaven receive the wayfaring 
traveler, who stands before God in the name of 
Christ, and the eternal mansions ring with the shout 
of victory — 

Thanks, thanks be unto God, that giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 




REPENT. 



105 



The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now 
commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent. 

Acts xvii. 30. 

Paul at Athe?ts — the city whose name calls up 
all that is great and attractive in this world's wis- 
dom. On the foundation of her ancestral glory she 
rose like a Pharos of the ancient world, where was 
culminating all its light of literature, art, science, 
philosophy ; and like the gilded spear-head of her 
protecting goddess on the Acropolis, that could be 
seen flashing in the sun from the far-off sea, shed its 
beams far and near, and brought every country and 
nation within the circle of her attractive power. 

Pa?il on Mars' Hill ! where, from time immemo- 
rial, the most august court of judicature had sat to 
pass sentence on the greatest criminals, and to de- 
cide the most solemn questions connected with Reli- 
gion. There Paul had been arrested while discuss- 
ing with the loquacious and inquisitive Athenians 
the things pertaining to God, and was carried up by 
his accusers to confront the awful tribunal, on whose 
decision hung life and death, as a setter-forth of 
strange gods. 

Above him the canopy of heaven, around him 



io6 



SERMONS. 



the plains and mountains of Attica, and in the dis- 
tance the expanse of the yEgean sea Immediately 
before him the Acropolis with the glorious Parthe- 
non and the colossal statue of Minerva, and a thou- 
sand other images, many of them glittering with 
silver. And as his eye ranged from temple to tem- 
ple which met his view wherever he turned, his 
spirit was stirred within him to denounce the super- 
stition which thought that the Godhead dwelt in 
temples made with hands." And as he glanced 
over the images and statues of their deities, which 
crowded the city in such numbers, that one of their 
satirists declared it was easier to find a God in 
Athens than a man ; almost under the shadow of 
the bronze colossus of its champion goddess, tower- 
ing from its pedestal on the rock of the citadel, he 
boldly proclaimed that the Deity ''was not likened 
to gold, silver, or stone graven by art and man's 
device." The poor and solitary Hebrevc met the as- 
sembled wisdom and power of the most civilized 
community of the world, and not in enticing words 
of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of spirit and 
of power, he revealed to them the unknown God,' 
he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection^ 
and pointing to the risen Saviour, who should 
come again to judge the world, called them to the 
faith of the Gospel — ''the times of this ignorance 



REPENT. 



God winked at, but now commandeth all men, 
everywhere, to repent. 

The times of this ignora7ice ! And what times, 
brethren, did the Apostle designate with this sweep- 
ing declaration ! I look through the book of his- 
tory and find no brighter page ; I take the map of 
this globe and pass from land to land, but there is 
no spot so glorious by the achievements of the hu- 
man mind, so luminous with the glow of civiliza- 
tion, as the citv of Minerva. The times of her 
growth and development were the times when ge- 
nius winged its flight over the earth and liberty 
broke the chains of despotism, when beauty first 
dawned upon the conception of the human mind, 
and poesy and thought became new powers in the 
life of man. Ah! they were the times when a line 
of heroes, sages and statemen passed over the stage 
of life, who still are the watchwords of our youth- 
ful enthusiasm and the lofty standards of our riper 
years ; w^iich produced the leading types in all that 
men call great — Solon the legislator, Pericles the 
statesman, Demosthenes the orator. The times 
when philosopy and science left the dreamy cradle 
of the east and built the lofty fabric of human knowl- 
edge, when Socrates taught ethics and Plato his ideal- 
ism; when Aristotle lived and contributed more to 
the stores of human knowledge and exerted a greater 



io8 



SERMONS. 



influence upon the human mind, and gave a more 
lasting direction to its progress (lasting to this day) 
than any other uninspired man on earth ! The 
times which were peopled with poets and writers and 
artists in painting and sculpture, who still are the 
standard of beauty and perfection, and whose works 
still refine our minds and beautify our lives and adorn 
our houses; the times, in short, when lived the men,, 
the light of whose genius and power has not been 
quenched by the lapse of long, long centuries; at 
whose feet we still are sitting to learn the first and 
often the highest lessons in politics and science and 
literature and art, and without whose inexhaustible 
legacy this world would be deprived of many of the 
highest possessions of humanity. These are the 
times, beloved, which the Apostle boldly calls the 
times of ignorance ; not the times of hyperborean 
darkness, not the night of barbarism and cannibal- 
ism — the times of the highest human development 
and civilization then known, and the premise of the 
glories of our present culture ! And yet, times of 
ignorance ! for what are all the gains of human wis- 
dom without the knowledge of God — His holy law 
and His redeeming love ? 

Here, at the very threshold of the Church, its 
herald threw down the gauntlet to the greatness and 
the wisdom of the world; and from the high plat^ 



REPENT. • 



form of revealed truth — the truth as it is in Jesus, 
the truth which alone declares the origin and condi- 
tion, the purposes and ends, the eternal relations 
and necessities of man — beholds the subordinate 
value of ever}^thing else, and sees darkness settle 
over the scene which is only lighted by human 
wisdom, w^ithout the knowledge and the faith and 
obedience of the truth of God, the one thing need-^ 
ful for His creatures in time or in eternity. 

And eighteen hundred years, my brethren, have 
not changed the issues. Let us take this nineteenth 
century. Ah ! it is not necessary for me to carry 
you along the oft-trodden road of its praise and glo- 
rification, and give a rapturous description of its 
blessings and privileges or gains and triumphs. 
The advances we have made in every department of 
human greatness, in knowledge, science, literature 
and art, in politics, commerce and social philosphy^ 
in deep searchings and lofty speculations : they are 
the theme of a thousand orators of the day, who 
find no more fertile or more pleasing topic than to 
congratulate the w^orld upon its greatness and flat- 
ter it with the excellency of its civilization. And 
ours is a glorious time with all its trials, crimes and 
humiliating experience. Our culture bears richer 
fruit than any other. The germs of the former days 
and civilization have developed in an abundant har- 
lo 



I lO 



SERMONS. 



vest, and the new element of Christianity has called 
forth forces and new ideas, and roused up capaci- 
ties, which have placed us in every respect ahead of 
the palmiest days of antiquity. The powers of na- 
ture are at our command as they were never be- 
fore; experience has taught us its lessons, society 
contains new sources of power, new means of ad- 
vancement; and a momentum has been given to our 
times that makes us reach results at a bound, which 
by-gone generations groped after in tedious and cir- 
cuitous routes. The whole world is waked up and 
alive to every important measure and question. 
Monopolies have ceased, and every part of this 
globe contributes its due to the work of our race 
and the promotion of our civilization. And yet — 
after admitting everything that can be claimed; w^hat 
is our life and what are our gains, and what is our 
civilization worth, if the truth of God is not its 
life and its light? What does all our glory amount 
to if it lacks the true glory of man — godliness'^ 

The festive hall, brilliant in the glare of count- 
less lights, and adorned w^ith all that taste and ge- 
nius can suggest : it is very beautiful and very daz- 
zling, and many a pleasant hour may be lounged 
away in its blaze. But blot out that sun which lights 
the heavens and the earth, and will your lighted hall 
replace a darkened world ? Just so when the light: 



REPENT. 



Ill 



of truth is hid, and when the love of God does not 
rule — what can you give us but]darkness and misery? 
When God is not in all our thoughts, when His 
^vord is not the light by w^hich we w^alk, His righte- 
ousness not the first and paramount element in our 
life — What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul ? " Ah 1 this 
truth is of infinite importance, and reaches into 
every department of our private and public life. 
We may study the laws of nature, but it will be 
worse than wasted time if we do not find and wor- 
ship in them the God of nature. We may multiply 
inventions and comforts, lay out new^ lines of com- 
munication by land and by water, but cannot lay 
out a new road to lieaveii ! You may thunder your 
speeches in the Capitol and your rostra may re- 
sound with eloquence unparallelled ; you may call 
your great political meetings and consider the dear- 
est interests of your country ; the patriot's fire may 
animate your tongues and your hearts, and your 
greatest energies be roused ; but, I tell you, if the 
knowledge and love of God are not the paramount 
element in your counsels, if in all you attempt, you 
do not place your duty to God first^ if in all your 
w^orks you do not serve God and His Christ — the 
light which is in you is darkness and all your w^is- 
dom turned to ignorance ! God forbid that we 



112 



SERMONS. 



should speak slightingly of patriotism, of the duties 
to our country and any legitimate employment, the 
daily work God has appointed us on earth. God 
forbid that we should not value our privileges and 
gratefully rejoice in the blessings w^ith which our 
earthly life is crowned. But, brethren, God first, 
and then the world ! and the world only in accord- 
ance with God's laws and will I Ah ! it is true as 
the Gospel itself, that no country and no commu- 
nity, and no house and no individual can be blessed, 
unless we seek first the kingrdom of God and His 
righteousness, unless we believe and live and act as 
Christians. And knowino- how constantlv men 
separate their interests and their work in the w^orld 
from the thought of God; how many live and make 
their plans and pursue their ends ''without God" 
and ''without Christ;" how many there are to 
whom God stiil is "an unknown God" and Christ 
"an unknown Saviour," i address the words of 
St. Paul to all: "The times of this ignorance God 
winked at; but now commandeth all men, every- 
where, to repent." 

The times of this ignorance God ninked at! 

Here, beloved, is a glimpse into the mysteries of 
God's mercy, clear enough to quiet the mind when 
speculating on the condition of those who lived be- 
fore the Christian revelation, or whom it has not 



REPENT. 



yet reached. But this is apart from my theme. 
The question for 21s is this: Are ours the times of 
ignorance which God will wink at — that is, over- 
look, bear with? And who is there here who could 
affirm or believe this? Ignorance, indeed, is fallen 
to many, but is it excusable or not? Is it by ne- 
cessity or wilful? and if wilful, does it not bring us 
into condemnation? And if so, oh, what else can 
we preach you, but repent! repent! for you are 
without excuse? 

The Gospel has risen upon the world, and from 
the rising to the setting sun its glad tidings and its 
solemn calls are proclaimed. And if there be on 
this globe some darkened spots, where Salvation 
through Christ has not yet been preached: the 
world which lue know, the world in which zue live^ 
is all in a blaze with the light of truth shed on it, 
the Salvation of God offered it. Here, in this coun- 
try, more favoured in religious things than perhaps 
any other, the Gospel is knoum to all; here, in this 
house of God, known to every soul, and if it is hid, 
it is hid only in its saving power. "If our Gospel 
is hid," said the Apostle, "it is hid to them that are 
lost!" Oh, gracious God! shall it be so with any 
of you? Brethren, you can plead no other igno- 
rance but impenitence. Many have been the times, 
when God placed Himself in your way, and rea- 



114 



SERMONS. 



soned with you of temperance, righteousness and a 
judgment to come! when He knocked at the door 
of your heart, to bless you with His truth and pres- 
ence! — You may Hve immersed in. your business 
and bury all other thoughts in the cares of your 
earthly pursuits. But has the time never been,_ 
when the thought rose in your heart that this was 
not all, nor the best thing of this life, and that there 
are higher riches to be gained, and that there is a 
lasting portion for the soul? God then tore away 
the veil of ignorance and spoke to your soul: yott 
are zuithoitt excuse ! — You may follow the gaieties 
of life, and pass from pleasure to pleasure, and 
where is there time for searching into the truth ! 
And yet you have had the moment of satiety and 
weariness, and perhaps remorse; and longed for 
something better than the husks of a frivolous 
world. God had lifted the curtain from the sanctu- 
ary of truth, and you cast a longing look within; 
your ignorance is gone — you are without exc2ise ! 
You may be the slave of lusts and vices, and your 
tastes be only earthly, but there have been days and 
weeks perhaps, when '^a fearful sound was in your 
ears." Of all men in the world, jw/ are those who 
most frequently and loudly have heard Him call 
to you: repent! You had no innocence to lose,, 
but you have lost your ignorance — you are ivithout 



REPENT. 



115 



excuse! Ah! there is no life which has not had its 
lessons, where, either in the day of rejoicing or in 
the day of sorrow, the thought of God and His Sal- 
vation has not obtruded; and oh, that souls still are 
ignorant of the way of life, who perhaps have seen 
the heavens opened as a little babe was borne aloft, 
or a beloved parent or friend seen to ascend on the 
wings of faith and love ; and can you forget the 
truth of eternal life, and refuse to repent ? 

]\Iy brethren, what can we do, what can I say to 
rouse you and prevail ? Shall I bring up the 
charge of sin ? — your heart trembles at it now ! 
Shall I call up the terrors of God's vengeance ? — 
will fear drive you into the love of God ? Shall I 
rehearse again the plan of Salvation, pressed home 
to you a thousand times, and yet a thousand times 
in vain ? Shall I open again the riches of Christ's 
grace, and the freeness of His invitation, and bid 
you come, with all your sins, ''just as you are?" 
Oh brethren ; but you must come with the prayer 
and the resolution to be made better, made holy 
and like Christ; this is the repentance demanded; 
and without that holiness, which results from it, 
no man can see the Lord ! / have no power, no 
strength, no wisdom, to persuade hearts that have 
resisted so often and so long. 77/^?// gracious Sa- 
viour, and Thy constrai7iing love alone, can win the 



ii6 



SERMONS. 



heart and bring it to repentance. Oh, think of 
Him, beloved, the Only Begotten Son of God, who 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross — and why ? to pay the penalty for our sins 
and make a way for us to God and Heaven ? surely ! 
but also to conquer with His bleeding love the 
proud heart of apostate man, and excite in it a feel- 
ing of love to that God who loved us and gave His 
Son to die for us ! 

Fellow-sinner ! does not your heart thrill at the 
sound of those names : Gethsemane and Calvary ? 
The Son of Gpd, sinking under the weight — oh 
that weight ! — of the sins of the whole world that was 
laid upon Him ; writhing in agonies, which drove 
the blood through His pores, that it stood like 
sweat on His brow; and falling prostrate before 
His Heavenly Father, whose will He was ever so 
ready to do ; praying, praying amidst the tempta- 
tion of despair, and yet so humbly and meekly; 
praying in strains, whose every tone must have 
rent, in sympathy, each bosom in the hosts of 
Heaven : " O my Father, if it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me," and still willing to drink it, and 
drain it to the dregs : and all for yoit^ for you and 
me, to benefit 7is and pay the penalty for oitr sins ! — - 
and shall w^e let Him die in vain ? 

The Son of God, stretched out upon the cross. 



REPENT. 



117 



and raised between heaven and earth, between two 
thieves, the substitute of a murderer; a crow^n of 
thorns, w^hich cruel mockery had wound upon His 
head, so deeply bowed under that curse from which 
He died to free the world; scorned and railed at by 
that people which had been the witnesses of His 
power and His doctrine, and sacrificed to their 
fury; His blood flowing drop by drop and staining 
the tree, His body and the ground ; His life ebbing 
lower. and lower, and the sins laid upon Him, press- 
ing more and more upon His heart, until it broke, 
and forced from His dying lips the cry: ''My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " Yet never 
ceasing to love that world for whose sake He suf- 
fered; never ceasing to comfort mourning sinners; 
and though He could not move His nailed hands 
towards those He wished to bless, nor fold them in 
His prayer; still breathing His pardon over a re- 
bellious world, and praying for His murderers : 
''Father, forgive them ; " //// it was finished, and all 
creation shuddered at the scene; the sun hid him- 
self, the heavens clothed themselves with blackness, 
the earth did quake and the rocks rent, the graves 
were opened and the dead started from their sleep, 
as if the last day had come ; till all was finished, 
and He bowed down His head and gave up the 
Ghost; till all Scripture was fulfilled, and the work 



SERMONS. 



of atonement for the sins of the world, for your 
sins, completed ! 

Man of the impenitent heart, behold your cruci- 
fied Redeemer ! Why His lingering death ? Why 
His sufferings ? Why did not nature rise up, and 
the elements engage in war with man to stay the 
unnatural deed ? why did not legions of angels take 
their Master from the tree and pass through the 
ranks of His persecutors and execute vengeance 
upon them ? why did not the Father interpose and 
remove that cloud of wrath above the cross and 
take Him up unto Himself in Heaven ? He died 
for you, that you might live ! And with this love 
that made Him bear and suffer unto death, He 
comes to move your heart of stone. That agonized 
cry from the cross is for your sins ; that imploring 
look, so full of love and pity is on you, is for your 
heart, to soften it and break it in repentance, and 
call it back to Holiness and God and Heaven — 

And will you let Him cry and will you let Him 
•die in vain ? 




NO GOD. 



The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. 
Psalms xiv. i. 

But why select such a text ? Who cares what a 
fool saith ? True ! But, brethren, there are a great 
many fools in this world, and if all their voices be 
silenced man's conversation will be very limited. In 
one sense, the sense of the word to which I shall 
revert after awhile, all men belong to that class, for 
all are sinners. But beyond this, as the words of the 
wise are a guide into truth and holiness and righteous- 
ness, so the words of the fool mav be a marsh-licrht 
that leads its followers astray, or a beacon-light to 
warn us off from sin and error. And in this way 
the words of the fool, quoted in the text, receive a 
weight of importance, a depth of meaning, a breadth 
of bearing, and become a source of results which 
go beyond all else. 

I. TJiere is no God ! It is the secret of the fall, 
the fundamental fact from which is begotten the 
sinful life of man; if I might use a modern term, 
the protoplasm " of all sin. This is God's own 
teaching of this Psalm, and underlying all the teach- 
ing of His word. The context makes this perfectly 
plain : The fool hath said in his heart, there is no 



I20 



SERMONS. 



God I They are corrupt, they have done abomi- 
nable works, there is none that doeth good, they 
are all gone aside, they are altogether become 
filthy, there is none that doeth good ; no, not one I 
All, my brethren — the effects of that disbelief,, 
which is embodied in the fool's declamation, '''there 
is no God 1 " ''They call not upon the Lord," is 
the closing description, the clinching fact with 
which the sin of man is driven back into its first 
cause — apostasy from God. I have often thought 
that all treatises on morals should be written from 
this point of view. Not infidelity as one of our 
sins, not as the effect of a sinful life, (though that 
strengthens and upholds the unbelief of man and 
develops it in its multiform manifestations,) but 
reasoning from the cause to its effects, starting with 
unbelief, with the apostasy from God^ with the hope- 
less " without God," as our creed. A true system 
of moral philosophy would trace all the sins and 
errors of this fallen world, all the wickedness and 
wretchedness, the fear and doom of individual man^ 
to this Scripture-truth, inibclicf^ the root of all sin. 
Just as before and with and after all physical phe- 
nomena stands the Creator, who called them inta 
existence and guides them with His almighty hand; 
so before and with and after all moral and spiritual 
life, lies that one truth, the existence and the living: 



XO GOD. 



121 



presence of the personal God, who, at sundry times 
and in diverse manners, has revealed Himself to 
His rational and accountable creatures. Unbelief, 
the root of sin, the germ, the bud that contains the 
fruit of sin, of all sin^ with all its innate penalty of 
corruption, suffering, wretchedness, and death of 
hope I It is not the secret of the introduction of 
sin, for unbelief is of the essence of sin, and the 
possibility of that sin is given in the free agency of 
man; but it lays open the secret of man's subsequent 
corruption and growing depravity. As that light, 
which, at the fiat of God, first electrified the chaotic 
masses of matter and began that course of arrange- 
ment, combination, collection, and co-ordination, of 
evolution if you choose, which ripened into the or- 
der and beauty of the heavens and the earth, which 
proclaim God's glory : so the light of truth, flowing 
from the same God, became the life and guide of 
the immortal soul. Blot out the light of these 
heavens and a darkened, freezing world ceases to 
exist. Turn from that light of God's truth — and 
darkness, corruption, moral and spiritual death 
must follow. 

It is the grandest truth revealed and the key to 
the soul's history in life. " Without God — " no guide, 
no dependence, no higher feelings and aspirations, 
to hold up the image of God. Without God," — 
II 



122 



SERMONS. 



all ultimate responsibility abolished. Can you do 
away with that? Without His revealed will, the 
basis of all morality taken away (for God's will is 
the only absolute arbiter of right and wrong) ; 
every sin is a sin against God, and hence its hei- 
nousness and fatal power. 

]\Ian's historv beo"ins with it. The first act of 
sin folloi'jcd disbelief in God and His word. Yea, 
hath God said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall 
ye touch it, lest ye die?" and man believed the 
devil more than God, and plucked the forbidden 
fruit, Once remove that belief, and with it that re- 
sponsibility, and man's will becomes the law and the 
creature his own God I Follow the outline of the 
historv of the race. After havino; broken with God 
it Avas easv to break with man ; and the first child 
born into this world dipped his hands in his 
brother's blood. All that remained was for man to 
break with himself and defile his own soul and 
body, his mind and conscience, in serving his own . 
lusts. The wave of corruption flowed over the 
earth, and ever since has carried on its tide its 
guilty souls to ruin — without God I " the curse of 
that life I 

As we descend in the course of centuries and study 
the different epochs which mark the great outlines 
of nations: always, everywhere materialism, the de- 



NO GOD. 



123 



velopment of this apostasy, the denial, not only of 
God, but of our own higher, God-like nature — has 
carried in its train, even amidst the splendours of an 
Augustan era, in whatever country or age it be 
found, socially or scientifically, the deeper fall of 
the race from its hiq-h and crlorious destiny, unhu- 
manized life, and left in lieu of the true man, to 
quote Augustin, ''a splendid animal," and worse 
than a fallen angel. The failure of the old faith in 
any country, at any time, whatever God it was that 
w^as revealed in that old faith, in the East, in Greece, 
in Rome, in the Church of Christ Himself, was the 
downfall of the people, the failure of its calling. 
Of course, "without God," and no restraint upon the 
passions of the runaway soul ; that, to sustain itself 
had to make the most of this life and sacrifice to it 
every higher hope and aim: ''seek ye first and only 
the things of this life,'' (for there is nothing after, ) is 
the necessary creed when the belief in God has 
failed. How fearful to trace this out in the life of 
the individual I Perhaps first a mere decline, till the 
soul gets used to it — lukewarmness, carelessness, 
w^orldliness, the thought of God inconvenient, troub- 
ling the stupor or frenzy which had seized it — until 
habitnal ungodliness binds the soul to the ministry 
of a life of labor and sorrow for its three-score 
years and ten and no hope beyond, to the ministry 



124 



SERMONS. 



of evil and the bondage of sin and fear and death. 
For boast as you may of that intellectual height 
which writes no God " upon His handiwork, you 
cannot blot out that God ; He is there, and the in- 
fidel and sinner know it. ''Thou God seest me," 
is the confession wrung from convictions that he 
deeper than the fictions and pretensions of the God- 
less soul, the handwriting on the wall which fills 
that soul with fear and torment. 

Oh, brethren, away from God ! — it is the fall of the 
soul into sin. And thus falling away farther, ever 
farther away from God; lower, ever lower down into 
hopeless, determined infidelity, and deeper, " ever 
deeper, into sin — what must be the end? 

n. The fool hath said in his heart ^'there is no 
God!" — With the heavens above and its glories 
shining on us ; with the earth around us and its mar- 
vels of beauty and blessings; with the revelations 
of power, wisdom, benevolence in our own com- 
plicated existence, and the demands of the mind and 
the cravings of the soul : luliat an unnatural effort 
does it require^ what a pre-determined, conscious, 
studied and eiefiant resohition, not to see, not to hear, 
not to feel! to blind the understanding and stifle 
conviction and silence the voice of the heart; to 
blot out from all the name of God, and stultify 
man's reason by denying the cause of these effects ! 



NO GOD. 



125 



Ordinary, common-sense and unsophisticated men 
never do so. It requires an effort for which we 
vainly seek an adequate cause, except in the deter- 
mination to ^et rid of God and our responsibiHty to 
Him. I cannot put it in smoother words. What 
studies, what round-about ways, what fanciful prem- 
ises, what life-long sophistries — at last to induce 
the mind even to listen to such philosophy ! The 
greatest students of God's world, those who have 
created modern science, all found in the wonders 
of the eye and the ear, in the revelations of either 
the telescope or the microscope, vestiges of tlie great 
Creator. It requires an effort to deny them their 
witness to the existence, power, wisdom, living pres- 
ence of God. The sphere of the mind must be 
lowered, conscience and consciousness must be put 
in a new and false training, before the result can be 
reached. — This is not the place nor am I the man 
to treat the question scientifically or philosophically, 
or whatever it may require to meet such tremen- 
dous efforts against nature and nature's convictions 
and nature's catechism. I appeal only to common 
sense and the convictions of every man's mind and 
the craving of every man's heart. **Out of nothing 
nothing can be made. Just as sure as anything is^ 
some tiling lias always been its cause ^ and that some- 
thing is God, If at any time in the flow of eternal 



126 



SERMONS. 



ages, there was nothing, there would be nothing 
still." 

The supposition of matter to be eternal is impos- 
sible; if there ever was a time w^hen all was chaos, 
all would be chaos still. The first attribute of 
matter is inertness. There must be first a moving 
cause. The collocations and co-ordinations in mat- 
ter deal the death-blow to all such atheism; and time 
enough, however brief, has passed to prove this to 
many of those who first started with these impossi-^ 
bilities. To deny the reasoning from effects to causes 
is useless. We are born to it, and from one fact to 
another the mind travels and finds causes for effects, 
the causes themselves becoming effects; on, on, the 
series grows, till the mind wearies, becomes bewil- 
dered, dizzy; and there is no rest till the basis of all 
is found in a great — tJie great first canse — God! 
There is no rest for the mind without this. We can 
believe in a self-existent God, (and all the world does 
believe and has believed in Him), but the intermina- 
ble series of effects and causes, reaching back to no 
end — it is that materialism which, of all attem^pts of 
the metaphysical mind, has been and ever will be, 
the most unsatisfactory and the most degrading. 

We must rest in the final cause — God, Call it 
unphilosophical as much as you please. No array 
of learned phraseology will ever change this postu- 



NO GOD. 



127 



late of the reasoning mind. It is the universal 
axiom. 

That poet who has had the deepest insight into 
human nature and the aspirations of its lofty in- 
tellect, vainly introduces his hero studying the 
1st chapter of St. John's Gospel (and, of course, 
misreading it) to solve the question: In the begin- 
ning was the 'Word' — no, no! the Word could not 
have such power. Tlie viind^ tlic tJioiiglit? but 
that is not enough — it is the force, the pozver ! more 
than one hundred years ago anticipating the shibo- 
leth of the present day. But it gave his active mind 
no rest — no! it must be '*in the beginning was the 
deed, the act!' And there he rested. Certainly. 
But back of that deed must stand the doer, and back 
of that act the actor or agent ; and back of this crea- 
tion he investigates, the Creator ! I challenge any 
one to find a flaw in this common-sense argument. 
— And z^Jiat a Creator! 

Can you look upon the phenomena of this world 
and see how they all are suited and matched to each 
other, and supply each other's wants, and tally with 
the capacities contained in each? Can you pass on 
from world to world and see the reign of law and 
the perfect order, and symmetry with which all are 
moving, and the harmony from one end of creation 
to the other — such as made the poetic minds of all 



128 



SERMONS. 



ages speak of ''the harmony of the spheres" — and 
listen to the silent anthem which rises from all these 
countless creatures of Almighty power, and not bow 
in reverence; and behold design, intelligence, pur- 
pose in all? Xo architect, no worker, no God I I 
think the folly of infidelity reaches its acme, when 
it sneers superciliously at this argument from ''de- 
sign" as unphilosophical, unscientifix. 

Pass on, and take the higher manifestations of 
inner life ^ as much subjects of our cognizance and 
investigation as the physical phenomena of the 
world — tlie cravings of the sonl, the demands, the 
necessities of tlie heart — and zinll you give it azvorld 
zvitJiont a God? 

All this glory, all this beauty, all these countless 
coincidences and mutual complements, this universal 
co-operation and harmony which thrill the human 
heart, and which human intellect copies and follows 
in the constructions of its own intelligent nature; 
that mind, that soul longing to rise to the Great 
Maker and sustainer of all, and seeking the face and 
heart that throb through the universe, as approach- 
able and responsive (or it finds no peace and satis- 
faction,) and as the result: a dead niaclnne^ a per- 
petnnni mobile f without the motive act, without the 
guiding mind and without the sustaining power and 
life; all mere matter, mere matter, because we are 



NO GOD. 



129 



determined to have nothing else; nothing beyond 
and above ; though we must itninaterialize matter to 
explain its phenomena, suspend its inertness, ascribe 
to it attributes which do not belong to matter, and 
thus admit impossibility. 

Ah, we must go beyond all this; and let us be 
forced — let the strictest advocates of mere material- 
ism be forced at last to admit a God^ a force, a 
thought behind it all; is tJiat the goal the soul of 
man seeks — must seek? or there is no hope, no 
strength and relief and comfort; no future to speak 
of immortality, no love to meet the love that springs 
up in the heart as its most blessed possession, roam- 
ing through a universe of worlds and seeing noth- 
ing but matter, matter — spiritual death, death — no 
soul! no God to love us, no Christ to save us! 

Oh, in the soul's life, what wants, what cravings! 
And where every atom finds its mate, and every 
tendency its help, no response to that undying cry 
of the soul ? In joy no sympathy; in sorrow no 
consolation ; in fear no relief; in hope no certainty; 
in sin no redemption; in death no eternal home! 
Going through all the w^onders of flesh and blood — 
(for such they are without a soul,) and no Christ ! 
Tell me not of your wisdom and philosophy; what 
can you give for the life, the hopes, the certainties 
of this living God and living Christ, that speaks to 



I30 



SERMONS. 



me from the Bible, and whispers its truths and con- 
solations in my heart! That is not wisdom to bless 
a world to say, " There is no God ! " 

To feel life within, and vainly seek it without; to 
struggle against self and sin, and ask for help in 
vain ; to suffer and pine, and no appeal for com- 
fort. To sit day by day, and night by night, near 
the dying couch of my child, and find no response 
to my prayers from above; to wander in sin and seek 
to return, and no Father to welcome the returning 
prodigal ; to be dying of life, the life of the soul, 
and no Redeemer, nothing to go to but a dead 
world ! No God ! no Christ ! 

Oh! let the wise of the earth keep their vaunted 
wisdom, which gives me a stone for bread, a blank for 
the promise of hope lying deep in my heart ! Give 
7/iethQ foolishness of the child's faith, that knows and 
feels and says, r/ie7^e is a God^ there is a Clirist ! 

III. TJie fool liath said in Ids lie art titer e is no 
God!'' 

I come to my last point. Thus far I have, in 
the main, been giving you and arguing before 
you the common interpretation of this verse and 
its context in the Psalm. All is true, but I am sure 
the special meaning of the text goes far beyond it. 
We have not yet gotten at the pith and marrow of 
that word, not yet touched the nerve of it : 



NO GOD. 



The fool hath said in his heart, there is no 
God." 

To me it is a proposition self-evident that the 
man who denies the existence of God, and with it 
all that flows from it, is a fool. Atheism is the 
most glaring, monstrous folly to the soul, that can- 
not den\ its immortality, and has no data to deny 
its Maker and Redeemer. We do not want revela- 
tion, do not want the Bible, (that never wastes time 
in self-evident truths,) to tell us tJiat^ and tell it so 
solemnly. It is all involved in it, and there will be 
times when this aspect of the question is presented. 
But far above soars the real teaching of the text ; 
far above, because much more intimately connected 
with the inner life of man and the necessary pro- 
cesses of his accountable existence. Far, deep into 
the soul, the heart of hearts, goes the teaching of 
my text. 

Revelation is not necessary to prove the existence 
of God ; but its great purpose is not only to teach 
us what sin is and its heinousness, but also that sin 
is incompatible with belief in God ; for every sin is 
the result of unbelief, the denial, the rejection, the 
defiance of the living God ! — 

We are misled by the translation of our Bible; 
the terms ''fool," ''foolishness," "folly," have, in 
the Old Testament, a moral rather than intellectual 



132 



SERMONS. 



meaning. They are equivalent to "sinner," ''sin- 
fulness/' ''sin." And here is the true teaching of 
the text : Tlic sinner hath said in his heart there is 
no God 1 I have not time to stop to prove the cor- 
rectness of this interpretation. Go to your Bible, 
and from the book of Genesis on to the last book 
of the Old Testament, you will find that "folly" 
and "sin'" are terms synonymous. "She has 
wroucrht follv in Israel," is said of the woman that 
sinned. " Do not thou this folly,'' is the vain ap- 
peal of the victim to her strong and overpov\-ering 
foe. " ]\Iy wounds stink and are corrupt, because 
of my foolishness.'' "Oh, God 1 Thou knowest 
my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee." 
Such texts are scattered all over God's word. 

The truest meaning of the text is, tlie sinner hath 
said in his heart there is no God I Tlie si)iner ; 
every sinner ! A man may hold many errors and 
wrong views, and suffer from his mistakes ; but sin 
alone separates from God, for it dethrones Him, and 
denies His being and His reign. Ez'try siiiner^ and 
Z'clienever a niein sins, even a Christian, when sur- 
prised into sin, is guilty of saying in his hearty 
" there is no God I '' This shoves how unbelief 
begets sin, how every sin cuts us loose from our 
relation to God Himself, and is in rebellion against 
Him. 



NO GOD. 



And mind, he need not acknowledge it in words, 
need not proclaim it from the house-top, may keep 
very quiet about it and preserve the decorum of an 
outward creed and even profession ; but he hath said 
in his heart, to himself, to quiet his fears, Tush I 
shall God see?" — to stifle his conscience, to fight 
down his better Self, to sweep away his religious 
scruples. Determined to do wrong, to violate God's 
law, he persuades himself that God is not, certainly 
not present then, not there to take notice of it. He 
forgets Him when temptation surprises him. He 
lives in sin because he realizes not and tries not to 
believe in the omnipresence of a living sin-avenging 
God; yet who, upon repentance and resistance to 
sin, is the sin-forgiving Saviour. 

Here it is, and the plain teaching of this text : 
Committing sin, living in sin — incompatible with 
the belief in God! Every sinner practically an 
atheist, every sin the denial of our God ! 

Just think a moment. There is your knowledge 
of right and wrong ; then comes the temptation ! 
Could you yield to it if yon sazv God standing by 
you, and your Saviour's wounds bleeding again, 
being crucified afresh by you ? Could you sin, 
would you have the moral or the physical force or 
courage, if you saw God ? If you had the faith 
which sees Him, sees Him in His purity and holi- 
12 



134 



SERMONS, 



ness, the tables of the eternal law of righteousness 
in His hands, and callinQ" to vou and claiminsf vou 
as His? With the threat of His vengeance upon. 
the sinner, hell yawning upon him with its untold 
terrors? With the promise of all-sufficient grace 
to the penitent who resists and has ''respect to 
God/' heaven open for every one that believes 1 Is 
it possible to sin with such a belief? Xo, we sin 
because, as we flee away from God, hide ourselves 
from Him like Adam, forget Him: we think that 
puts Him off from us, and He will not see us and 
take account of us. Every sin is a denial of God's 
presence and holiness. 
Heir IS the true gauge : 

Does the drunkard proclaim his faith in God 
while he quaffs the fatal poison? Ah I I have 
known him in his frenzy to say he would take it if" 
a gun were pointed at him ; but it was all a lie 1 A 
false boast 1 Why, I have known him to stop Vv'hen 
/ came in the room. Like every sinner he can 
stop, whenever he has dread of others, sufficient 
faith in the obstacle to his sin. He indulges it 
when no one sees him but his boon companions in 
the same sin with him ; he shuns the public eye, 
and all are heeded but God, because he fools him-- 
self with the falsehood, ''there is no God I " 

Will the adulterer indulge his vile practice when. 



NO GOD. 



the eye of a witness is upon him ? does he not seek 
the darkness and secrecy of the night, and exclude 
all that could possibly reveal his sin — ''wipe his 
mouth " and boldly step before the world that has 
not watched him and say : " I have done no wick- 
edness I " But unblushingly he sins in the sight of 
the all-seeing God, because he does not see Him 
present, does not believe that sin is recorded by 
Him, does not fear Him, whom he does not believe. 
^' ye VIC dainne viais je )ie peiix faire aiitrevicnt'' 
said the lascivious monk. It was a lie ; he could, 
he can stop, stop for every interruption ; and would 
stop for damnation if it really broke upon him in 
fact, as it should have been present to his faith. 

Or the murderer, the thief — why he looks around 
to see if no one is near, seeks the cover of darkness 
or the lonely hour, fears everybody but God ; does 
he believe in that righteous God then ? 

The covetous — ah ! I know of no one who so dil- 
igently tries to escape the public eye, who tries so 
eagerly to appear the very opposite of what he is ; 
because he fears the most scornful contempt of his 
fellow-creatures, should they see him grinding as a 
slave at Mammon's w^heel. God sees him ; sees all ; 
but the love of gold has blinded the miser that he 
cannot see, cannot love, cannot believe in God. 

My brethren, could they co7Jiiint, could any commit 



136 



SERMONS. 



the act of si?i, if they believed in Him ? If by that 
faith which is the evidence of things not seen, the 
substance of things hoped for or feared, if by such 
faitli tJiey saiv Him ? 

Xo ; impossible I Sin blots out God from our 
presence and consciousness, and nothing saves from 
the power of sin but faith ; faith that alone has 
power to make God present to us, real, felt in the 
soul, to bless or to curse. — 

And thus we come back to the point from which 
we started — disbelief, unbelief, forgetfulness of God, 
•'without God' in the world," — the root of sin. 

All sin: Godlessness — without God; ungodli- 
ness — not conformed to His image; unbelief — in its 
manifestations of profaneness and irreligion ; de- 
nial — of His claims and authority; rebellion — 
against His laws; ingratitude — for His blessings; 
abuse — of His mercies ; abuse of our highest power 
as free agents — even to serve God, the sons of God ! 

All involved in the sin of 2inbelief. It is this 
which makes it sin and makes it so exceedinQ;lv 
sinful. Oh 1 my brethren, is it not true that such is 
the life, the course, the reasoning of all who are not 
Christians, not believing in God the Father, and 
Jesus Christ, whom He has sent? and is it not fool- 
ishness ? 

You may believe vou are sinninq; in secret, and 



NO GOD. 



your sin shall not find you out. Stop I Here is God^ 
who seeth in secret, sees you now and here, sees 
your heart and what is in it! — You may wear the 
cloak of fairness and decency, and try to make 
amends by charities and good actions which cost 
you nothing, not the darling sin of your heart. 
Stop! Here is God, and His judgment is with Him 
upon every soul of man that maketh a lie, and sins- 
in defiance of His law. 

Will you rush mto hell-fire that is before you,, 
rather than cut off the right hand and pluck out 
the right eye that offends ? because you do not see 
it and fool yourself into the denial of all retribution? 

But brethren, Jiere is Christ; He speaks in this 
very psalm, and speaks of His salvation whicli 
comes out of Zion. 

Here is Christ to call you, save you, love you, to- 
redeem you from the power of sin, to help you to 
come off conqueror and more than conqueror. He 
shed His blood to cancel your guilt. He gave Him^ 
self to win your heart. 

To Him take the heart of unbelief, and as you 
see Him dying for you on the cross and praying 
for your poor soul "Father forgive them,'' and 
opening Heaven for the returning prodigal, for all 
that believe : arise and live ! The darkness is passed^ 
light is sprung up! Arise and live in that light, a 



138 



SERMONS. 



ransomed sinner by faith in Jesus Christ; there is no 
cure of sin biit that — 

Thon God seest vie " — the beacon ! 

Lord save or I perisJi'' — the escape ! 

I ca7i do all tilings tJirongh Clmst that strengthens 
me " — the triumph ! 



FRUITS. 



WJiat fruit had ye then i)i those things y whei'eof ye 
are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death, 

Rom. vi. 21. 

Few doctrines have been so much abused as the 
great and precious doctrine of justification by faith. 
The Apostle had seen it himself in several of his 
churches, and his prophet-eye discerned how, 
throughout the ages of the Church, the adversary 
would take his stand here and ruin souls by discon- 
necting faith and works, justification and sanctifica- 
tion ; and on the specious plea that all is of grace, 
and pardon the gift of God, irrespective of works : 
delude people into the belief that it was perfectly 
immaterial how they lived, that it was useless to 
strive for holiness, inasmuch as grace alone would 
do the work. Yea, that the glory of the Gospel and 
the triumph of Christ would be all the greater, the 
greater the amount and depth of our sinfulness ; for 
the Apostle himself had said, "Where sin abounded 
grace did much more abound." 

Few, indeed, will be found who v\'ould commit 
themselves boldly to such views, which conscience 
tells us are profane and presumptuous, and disgrace- 
ful even in the sight of man. But I know also, that 
few are entirely free from a leaning towards such 



SERMONS. 



views, that too many are ready to neglect their own 
part in the work and cease striving, in the hope that 
under the Gospel dispensation things will not be 
taken so strictly, and that the grace of Christ will 
make up for our deficiencies. Ah I how many, 
brethren, whose conscience smites them for their 
inconsistencies and backslidings, for their luke- 
warmness and coldness in Christ's service ; or at 
least whose conscience would smite them but for 
their self-absolution just on that ground? who al- 
low their interest in religion to take a subordinate 
place, are satisfied with merely hanging on, whilst 
they rush with eager relish into the various occupa- 
tions and dissipations of the world 1 — and yet who 
think they are Christians and are perfectly safe, and 
trust to the grace of Christ and God's mercy in 
Him ! Is it not clear that they not only put asunder 
what God has joined together; /. separate justifi- 
cation and sanctification, but join together what 
God has put asunder — faith in Christ with love of 
the world and the service of sin. 

But to come to the argument of the x\postle. 
The great epistle to the Romans is his unanswer- 
able declaration of the Christian doctrine of justifi- 
cation by faith, and yet his protest against all un- 
righteousness of life. In his first five chapters he 
speaks only of justification, and clearly proves that 



FRUITS. 



141 



this is not by the deeds of the law, that it must be 
of grace through faith. He now brings up the ques- 
tion himself, which secretly rises as a hope in the 
carnal mind, We are saved without works, with- 
out the law — why be so anxious about sin ? " The 
Apostle knew that this train of thought would rise 
secretly in the carnal mind, and he meets it himself. 
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, 
that grace may abound ? " God forbid I he cries in 
answer. How shall we that are dead unto sin live 
any longer therein?" Here is his first argument: 

We that are dead to sin!" This cannot mean 
dead to the power, the temptation, the baneful influ- 
ence of sin upon his heart and life; for if this was 
the condition of the Christian neither you nor I 
could indulge the hope of being Christians. The 
Apostle himself, in the next chapter, confesses this 
power and influence of sin, sin dwelling in him — 

when I would do good evil is present with me ; 
the good I would that I do not, but the evil that I 
would not that i do." No ; according to the con- 
nexion of the whole argument of the Apostle and 
the true condition of the Christian, it means death 
to the condemninq; death-brincrinq; oower of sin ! 
From this the Christian is freed, his guilt is par- 
doned ; all that are baptised in Christ are bap- 
tized into His death; z. e., are declared partakers of 



142 



SERMONS. 



His death. We, by faith, acknowledge it as ■ our 
death; we accept it, take it as the expiation of 
our guilt ; we are baptised into His death, so 
that henceforth our sins being atoned for, we go 
free — in other words, we believe in Christ for jus- 
tification on the strength of that death He suf- 
fered for us, and the benefits of which we take 
to ourselves, and have sealed to our souls as 
God's promise, in the sacrament. But shall we, 
thus freed, continue in sin ? Do we think God 
gave His son to save those who remain impeni- 
tent? To bring us pardon without making us bet- 
ter? To abolish the guilt of those who are per- 
ishing in the worse plague of sin ? for guilt is only 
imputation, but sin is the reality. Why the whole 
would be of no use or purpose, were it not that 
those who thus are freed from the curse of guilt 
should rise in newness of life, should not hence- 
forth serve sin but live unto God, be changed from 
sinners to saints. This is the very object of the" 
Gospel, the leading thought in Christ's death. " He 
gave Himself for us ; " /. c, freed us from the death- 
sente'nce of the law for our sin and guilt by His 
atonement: that we should remain sinners, but 
to redeem us from all iniquity," the power and 
habit of sin, and purify unto Himself a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works." 



FRUITS, 



Here then we see the connection between iustifi 
cation and sanctification ; and how tJie first is given 
to us for tilt sake of the other. The ver\' object of 
His atonement is, that the soul thus redeemed from 
the death-doom of sin should rise towards God in 
a new life of holiness and love. The benefits of 
the Gospel are not limited to the removal of this 
sentence, this striking off the fetters of the pri- 
soner and bringing him the deed of release : its 
benefits go with him through life, and become 
S^race to him bv which he learns to li\'e unto God 
and become meet for his heavenly home. 

And can the sinner continue to cavil and sa\' 
*^ grace," under grace? " Why worry about the 
law and its demands if we are under grace ? Such 
a view involves a contradiction in terms. What 
is the reign of grace which Christ has estab- 
lished ? Is it a dispensation which spares sin or 
which spares the sinner ? Brethren, the sinner 
cannot be spared, while sin is spared, for death 
is the wages of sin, and even the mercy of God 
cannot undo this law. If the sinner is to be 
spared, there must not only be a just and sufficient 
satisfaction, such as is offered in the atonement and 
is ours, if by faith we are buried with Christ ; but 
his sin must be done away with, it can no longer be 
spared, it must be crucified as Christ Himself, the 



144 



SERMONS. 



sin-bearer, was crucified for us ; it must be eradi^ 
cated. And this is the true grace of God, that the 
sinner, who through faith in Christ has died with 
Him to tJie doo7n of guilt, now in the new hfe to 
which he is raised, learns to renounce, subdue,, 
mortify, overcome si7i, that it should no longer 
reign over him ; that in the Gospel of Christ motives 
and strength and means are given us to maintain 
the upper-hand against sin; and though sometimes,, 
perhaps often, beaten down and never perfect, yet 
under the dispensation of His grace, to hold on to 
the truth, and run our course for heaven and heav- 
enly-mindedness in that liberty with which Christ 
has made us free, till w^e have gained the victory^ 
the victory of grace. 

This grace cannot co-exist with wilful indulgence 
in sin, or even the careless service of sin. Where 
the one reigns the other must be cast out. When 
one trium.phs, the other must yield. And thus we 
can kn OZU Zi 'here zue stand. 

This is the second argument of the Apostle : — 
" Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves 
servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience 
unto righteousness." By their fruits ye shall 
know them," saith the Saviour. 

And now, after this course of reasoning, the 



FRUITS, 



Apostle in conclusion adds his last argument in 
the form of an appeal to the consciousness and 
experience of the individual Christian. " What 
fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now 
ashamed?" The Apostle merely asks the ques- 
tion, feeling sure the verdict could be nothing 
but unprofitableness, shame, death ; — a crushing 
argument, and he does not wait for an answer; 
he only adds, and tlicir cud is dcatli^ But may 
not we press home this truth? This is just what 
His ministers have to do ; we take the suggestions 
of the inspired writers and apply them to the various^ 
but real and individual cases before us. 

WJiat fruit had yc then ? This question is ad- 
dressed, in the first place and emphatically to Christ- 
ians who have been made to feel their sin, and seek 
something better; who have some experience in 
both paths, the path of the imoenitent and the path 
of the believer. Only those who can compare the 
two states, their relative joys and sorrows, and 
their respective fruits, are enabled to give a full 
answer. Yet I doubt if there are any who are en- 
tirely devoid of such knowledge. All know^ enough 
of the truth, all have cherished better desires, not 
to feel the curse that is in this life of sin. Be- 
lieve me, nothing is more certain than this: as god- 
liness has tw^o promises, the promise of the life that 
13 



146 



SERMONS. 



now is and that which is to come, so sin has its 
threatening not only for eternity, but also here. It 
is not only that its end is death, in life itself it has 
its curse, and its fruits even here are Sodom-apples, 
fair in their deceitful outside but rottenness within. 
Sin itself is the worst curse under which man can- 
lie. St. Paul calls it the sting of death; ah, and it is 
no less the sting of life." 

We can appeal to the impenitent, the unbelieving,, 
the man who openly or secretly serves sin. Are 
you willing to tell us your experience and point out 
the fruit of your lives? Have they rewarded you 
for the price you paid for them ? Did you get, I 
will not say, the worth of your souls, but the worth 
of your labour ? Are you satisfied with the devil's 
wages ? 

Suppose we bring it home by some leading illus- 
trations. Take the victims of sensual indulgence. 
I mean in the largest sense — self-indulgence, excess, 
intemperance, living in pleasure, living for the pleas- 
ures and gratifications of earth and the carnal mind. 
Has there been no alloy in their gratification, no 
wretchedness of self-condemnation, no shunning the 
public eye and hiding from the scrutiny of the world? 
no loathing of their very pastimes, for which they 
felt they were bartering their better portion ? Ah ! 
you have spent your strength for the gratification 



FRUITS. 



of the animal in you, and that lower animal nature 
may have reaped its fruit ! But is it the fruit which 
can rejoice and satisfy the rational^ iinviortal crea- 
ture ? You have had your reward, but it was not 
what you bargained for — your wretched reward of 
•sin here in this fleeting world: surfeit, remorse, 
dissatisfaction; a painful, desolate void; the craving, 
the irresistible cravings of your better nature starved, 
unsatisfied, degraded — with a Tantalus-thirst for 
blessings that you have trampled under foot, and 
can never, never have as you are. They followed 
you through all the changing scenes of your ever- 
more-failing life, and brought shame upon you as 
the fruit of your sin licre^ and tJie end eternal 
death'' 

Or, take the covetous — mind you, I speak not of 
the man to whom God has given wealth, or who 
reaps the legitimate fruits of proper and over pains- 
taking industry — I speak of the covetous — all un- 
derstand the difference. It is not money which the 
Apostle declares to be the root of all evil, but ''the 
love of money,'' the all-absorbing love, the supreme 
and reckless pursuit of it. The covetous — oh, God I 
for the poor earnings of a few years, to stifle every 
generous feeling, to narrow the heart, to live in 
slavery to the passing, deceitful gains, so that it is 
not they that are yours, but yon are tlieirs ; and to 



148 



SERMONS. 



degrade man, made in the image of God, into the 
timid, hungry, selfish idolater of wealth? What 
is your fruit? Let the wrinkles on your brow an- 
swer, let your cares and anxieties witness for you; 
your fears, your dependence on those things which 
perish in the using! your love for nothing but what 
you must give up — certainly when you die. Ah ! 
the man that lives only to get rich — years pass upon 
years, cares multiply, tender and generous feelings 
are crushed, the world despises them, the poor curse 
them, laughing heirs are waiting for their death, 
dissipated sons. go to ruin in hope of their coming 
fortune — and your fridt ? After twenty, thirty, fifty 
years of labour and care and actual slavery to 
the most deceitful, cruel master — perhaps you get 
wealth, (and yet how few get it !) to build you 
a fine house and live in great style and shine 
in society — hozv long? Do you not know how 
one sudden crash may prostrate all your earthly 
prosperity, and give wings to your riches to fly 
away and leave you poor — leave you nothing 
but your unquenched thirst for what you have 
lost? Or, keep your stores, and save them 
from the general wreck, let them remain to you 
a few years and you are gone I you must leave 
them, We brought nothing into this world and 
we can carry nothing out." Is this success? the 



FRUITS. 



149 



success of a life of labour and toil ? Even society, 
poor and unchristian as it is in many respects, de- 
spises the man that claims the esteem of his fellows 
merely because he was smart and clever, perhaps 
mean and hard-hearted enough to coin money or 
tr}^ to do so ! And at what price ? Every noble 
feeling stifled, every hope of better things vanished ; 
and all the time God sees tliee^ and the hour is com- 
ing when he shall say give an account of thy 
stewardship " — and any moment His voice may go 
forth — " thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re- 
quired of thee.*' 

And I might speak of the uncharitable and of 
the revengeful, of the victims of temper, envy. Un- 
loved, unblessed, with a ^lordicai at the gate to 
embitter their every possession, with no friend to 
sympathize, no hand to clasp, they pass through 
life. Is that the fruit ye laboured for? 

I speak of any and all who do not set God be- 
fore their eyes, but live unto themselves and their 
idols, the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, 
and the pride of life. Brethren, we can get none of 
them to tell us the fruit of their labours ; aye, not 
one of them would confess to his idols. They are 
too much ashamed of them, and yet they live on 
and ripen for that final death, which is but the last 
fruit their sowing to sin brings forth. 



SERMONS. 



Ah! and even if the sinner should never reahze 
the curse that is on him here, can he boast of the 
joys which are the privilege and the holy aspira- 
tion of the Christian? the peace of heart, the know- 
ledge of God's love, the communion with Christ, 
the certainty of help in every hour of need, the as- 
surance that all things shall work together for his 
good ? Can he boast of that high and holy calling 
which is laid upon the Christian and which grace 
enables him to follow after, to glorify God, to serve 
Him here on earth, to set forth the beauty of holi- 
ness, to become to others an angel of mercy by 
leading them to the Saviour and doing them good ? 
I say, if a man' s life docs not bring forth these 
frnits it is a failure^ not worth living for ; toiling, 
toiling from morning till night, day after day, for 
the perishing baubles of the world, for the fickle 
applause of others, for the gratification of only our 
lowest wants, our animal appetites and passions, in- 
dulgence in which but sinks us lower in the scale- 
of rational beings. There is but one fruit that is 
blessed, the fruit unto holiness and the end ever- 
lasting." 

And beloved, that is not all. Yes, if conversion 
freed us from the fruits of sin ? But no, those 
things of which we are now ashamed" follow us 
into our Christian life; their remembrance often. 



FRUITS. 



darkens the doors of free grace to our souls, falling 
again under fearful conviction ; or, what is worse, 
they have given us habits which will spring up 
again in after life and become thorns and scourges 
in our side, and surround us with temptation and 
difficulties, and afford the adversary opportunities 
to assail us. Oh, God ! if the secret life of Chris- 
tians were known we would know something of 
this, something of the struggles caused by the for- 
mer service of. sin, of the former lust starting up, 
faintly at first, haunting us perhaps in dreams, in- 
troducing itself into our thoughts, filling the imag- 
ination till the soul is led on farther and farther — 
oh, where shall it end? Of whatsoever a man is 
overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage." 
Is not this the reason of almost every backsliding? 
And what but the grace of God can free us from 
the bitter taste of such fruits of sin, of which you 
are now ashamed ? " Ah ! ashamed ? Would you 
have your fellow-Christian know your thoughts and 
your spiritual troubles ? You are ashamed even to 
confess them to God, to yourselves often ; yet the 
heart knoweth its own bitterness, and sometimes it 
must find vent for the pent-up feelings of sorrow 
and anguish, and the bitterest and most humbling 
and startling confessions are poured into the pas- 
tor's ears. God grant this self-knowledge may lead 



152 



SERMONS. 



every one more and more to Christ and keep him 
humble and zealous, lest all his hopes should prove 
a delusion, for the end of these things is death." 

And is it not this after all, this hankering after 
the idols of the world, this exposure to our former 
lusts and their selfish aspirations which draws us 
away from the cross of Christ and the self-denying 
love the Christian life enjoins? is it not this which 
causes all the inconsistencies, all the faults of Chris- 
tians ? If a man is dead and cold a«nd lukewarm, 
if he talks lightly of sin, if his thoughts and con- 
versation give ndt witness of his nearness to Christ; 
why is this ? but because he is reaping the fruit of 
corruption, the harvest of his own sowing to the 
flesh, his heart is turned back to the sins from which 
he was purged ; he forgets that 

God from the curse has set us free, 

To make us pure within ; 
Nor did He send His Son, to be . 

The minister of sin. 

What fruit have we then, as professing Christians,, 
in those things of which we must feel ashamed in 
the sight of God, ashamed at the thought of Christ 
and all He did and suffered for us, ashamed in the 
estimation of others and before our own conscience, 
and ashamed in view of the last issue : Death and 
final retribution ; eternal shame or eternal glory ! 



FRUITS. 



Ah ! beloved, the two roads are before you with 
their termination of death or life ; the road of sin 
and death, the road of hberty and Hfe ! Arise and 
wash away thy sin, for Christ has died to set us 
free from its condemnation, and Christ is ahve to 
free us from its power. Follow on to make your 
calling and election sure ; for without holiness no 
man shall see the Lord ! Follow on, for ye are not 
under the law but under grace. God worketh in 
you to will and to do, therefore work out your 
own salvation with fear and trembling." 

Persevere and conquer, for eternity stands before 
you ; and behold it is Christ that calls unto you 
from heaven, Come unto me and be ye saved all 
the ends of the world ! " Oh ! may you hear and 
resolve now ! reineinber the tennSy Be thou 

faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 



life. 




154 



SERMONS. 



/ shall he satisfied when I awake with Thy like- 
ness. 

Psalms xvii. 15. 

I shall be satisfied? " And is this the language 
of the Christian ? Is not his a present satisfaction ? 
A state of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, of joy 
and peace in believing, even here on earth? How 
many sweet texts have we treasured in our hearts, 
how many sermons have been preached to us, how 
many books, pechaps, or tracts have we read which 
turned on this very point, and contrasted the un- 
happy, the changeful and unsatisfactory state of the 
worldling with that of the Christian — happy amidst 
all the trials and troubles of this life, enduring 
through all the changes and chances of our pil- 
grimage on earth, satisfying all his wants and meet- 
ing all the demands he can make on time or on 
eternity — as he knows and rejoices in the know- 
ledge, that mercy has come to him, unchangeable 
like the love of God that makes all things his. 
''All things are yours," for above life and death and 
the world ''God is yours;" not sJiall be, but is 
yours nozu, and "Christ is yours," your ever-present 
help, your ever-living Saviour. 

' And yet here is one of a truly Christian mind. 



SATISFIED. 



a man after God's own heart, the inspired Psalmist, 
who still feels a want, still gives witness to his long- 
ing for more by consoling his aspiring soul with the 
hope, " I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy 
likeness." 

Let us understand this. 

There is a satisfaction which belongs to the Christ- 
ian here on earth, which is perfect and complete; 
the satisfaction which flows from the gift of pardon 
and adoption into God's family in Christ. I know 
Christians may not have this actual sense of pardon 
alike, nor any realize it at all times. But I do say 
that it is the right and privilege, aye more, the 
duty of all. The moment we believe in Christ that 
moment we are justified, pardon nozu is 02irs^ God is 
reconciled. We are His children by adoption and 
grace, and we have no right to doubt the faithful- 
ness of His promises. If you have really trusted 
your soul to Christ, if you really cling to Him as 
your only help and Saviour, rely upon His merits 
and love and grace, then know that pardon is yours, 
is yours nozu ; that you are a member of Christ, are 
so nozu ; not that you may become one hereafter; 
know that you have already entered the kingdom 
of heaven and eternal life. He that hath the Son 
hath life ; not shall have it hereafter. There is 
now no more condemnation for them that are irt 



156 



SERMONS. 



Christ Jesus." You are the members of a house- 
hold, against which the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail. You are God's and He is yours, who will never 
leave you nor forsake you, under whose gracious 
government you can be perfectly happy ; yours 
" His grace all-sufficient," yours His strength ac- 
cordino" to vour davs." And know that for vou 
death has lost its sting and the grave been robbed 
of its victory. Your very tears and trials of earth 
are but the child's portion of discipline, testimo- 
nials of your heavenly Father's faithfulness and love 
for you ; and " neither life nor death, nor angels nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate you from the love 
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." These 
are exceedingly precious and important truths. 
They are the present blessings which God has be- 
stowed upon you. They are deeded to you in His 
holy word, and you have no right to say that you 
believe in Christ and have no other hope but Him^ 
but still doubt that He has pardoned you and that 
God has actually accepted you. The same faith by 
which you call upon Christ for salvation and give up 
all to Him, the same faith demands of you to as- 
sume these blessings for you on the strength of 
God's word. The grace of pardon and justification 



SATISFIED. 



are ours, they cannot be made more perfect, not- 
even in heaven ; our guilt is washed awa\', God's jus- 
tice is appeased, we are admitted into His presence — 
not yet while the veil of this earthly life hangs over 
us, face to face, but as really, as savingly, as pres- 
ently, by faith I It is not with regard to these that 
we may say, I shall be satisfied." 

But pardon and justification are not the only 
graces which are bestowed on the believer in 
Christ. Besides guilt and condemnation we are 
bearing the load of corruption and our sinful na- 
ture, and to overcome this we need the grace of ho- 
liness and sanctification. W'e must stand not only 
in the righteousness of Christ, but also in His wilL 
Without this there could be no heaven fdr us, we 
would not be meet for its blessed life, not in the 
condition to enjoy its glories. ''Without holiness 
no man shall see the Lord 1 " — But here, too, the 
Gospel, and the Gospel only, gives us the required 
satisfaction; the victory over sin is just, the " vic- 
tor}' of our faith." 

The difference is this : our justification is com- 
plete the moment we give up contending Vv'ith God 
in our own name, and approach Him as sinners, who 
trust themselves to Christ. But sanctification is of a 
gradual development, it is the growth of the Christ- 
ian on earth. Freed from the guilt that drove us 
14 



158 



SERMONS. 



from the presence of God, we unlearn our former 
sinfulness and are in the school of Christ, to be 
made holy and meet for the kingdom of heaven. 
We have entered that kingdom actually by faith^ 
but we enter it as those who are under the teaching 
of Christ, to be governed only by His law, to adopt 
His will as ours, surrender our will to Him, and 
strive to be like Christ. And fully satisfied can we 
only be, when we have learned this lesson, when we 
have reached this perfection of our regenerate na- 
ture. 

And now we may understand how the Psalmist,, 
whose life was emphatically one of faith and entire 
dependence on Christ ; who, through faith, could 
rise (as we learn from his hymns) from all his sor- 
rows and trials, and was enabled even to glory in 
tribulation and sing songs in the darkest night ; 
how he who never doubted the pardoning and 
helping grace of his Saviour, who was perfectly sat- 
isfied when thinking of God's willingness to par- 
don and Christ's ability to save to the uttermost ; 
who in his deepest distresses could look up to Him 
with confidence, and after his worst falls, cry " Lord,. 
I am thine, save me ! how he — when struggling 
after the bright example' of Christ's holiness, and 
feeling the fearful throes of the enemy in his own 
carnal nature, as arrayed against the desires and re-^ 



SATISFIED. 



159 



solves and energies of his better self, which had 
been born in him of God — how he could feel how 
much he yet lacked to be complete in sanctification ; 
and from a heart overflowing with love for the Sa- 
viour and hanging on Him as his all in all, would 
long for the time when self should be entirely con- 
quered, sin overcome, the old Adam left behind, 
and Satan deprived of his prey; and his will, freed 
from all ungodly influences, be entirely identified 
w^ith the will of Christ, his whole nature not only 
regenerated by faith, but perfected through holiness 
into the likeness of Christ. 

Now we may understand, too, the blessedness 
even of the struggling and agonized believer, who 
is so often cast down in his heavenward course and 
suffers from his spiritual foes and the sin which so 
easily besets him, yet who even then believes, and 
by faith knows, that he shall get the victory and 
come off more than conqueror through Him that 
loved him, and that Avhen awakening from the fitful 
and the sadly chequered dream of life he sha^ 
''awake in the likeness of his Master." 

Oh ! my brethren, we cannot think too seriously 
of this. We cannot put up too high the standard of 
purity and love and godliness which we must pur- 
sue. It is iiotldng less tJian to be like Christ! to 
reflect His image as He when He was on earth, 



i6o 



SERMONS. 



clothed in the rags of humanit}', reflected the image 
of God. Thank God, we are not saved for our 
righteousness, but for Christ's I In our helpless 
state of sin and condemnation we must flee to Him 
for help, lay hold of His gift of pardon for all our 
sins, trust in His blood which cleanseth from, every 
sin. But then, out of this very love for Him, though 
appfoaching Him in deepest humility and v\dth the 
prayer of the publican. }'et like the Apostle, we 
must press on towards the mark, "the mark which 
is the full stature of the measure of Christ."' He 
Avhc^does not seek for it, he who does not strive to 
be like Christ, has none of His spirit, is no true be- 
hever. Oh I the longings of the true Christian for 
more grace I Who that has looked back over his 
hfe has not cause to mourn that he has advanced 
so little, made so little progress, whilst heaven and 
earth appealed to him b\' all that is dear and sacred, 
and whilst his own heart was urging him on, to fol- 
low Christ and be like Him ? Oh 1 the tenderness 
of the true and loving Christian, whose conscience 
smites him for every short-coming and every fail- 
ure in thought, emotion, word, and deed I All these 
are sorrows of the true Christian, brethren, and ac- 
company us through life as we gain a further know- 
ledge of Christ ; but the\- cannot, cannot cast us 
down from our hopes \\-hich are placed, not upon 0217^ 



SATISFIED. 



i6i 



righteousness and our attainments, but upon Christ, 
and Him alone. Oh I if we can go to Him, even 
after years of struggles and labours, with the hum- 
bling confession of our unprofitableness, go to Him 
with the prayer, Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine 
unbelief," He will not cast us out, He will strengthen 
our hopes that rest on Him ; and after all our strug- 
gles and conflicts with an evil heart and a sinful 
world and a deadly foe, after all our failures and all 
our partial successes, still keep alive in us both the 
desire and the certain hope of final success, and en- 
able us to take comfort in the thought, I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." — 

But can zijc^ dare ice cherish this hope ? Can we 
hope to awake in the likeness of Christ ; that is, 
wholly sanctified, holy as He is holy ? If there is 
a heaven for us, it can be only on this condition. — 
There is no presumption in this assertion. We go to 
our graves reconciled and pardoned in the blood of 
Christ. But we must be holy as Christ is holy ; that 
is, our whole will must be His, and His only; our 
whole spiritual life identified with Him — or heaven 
cannot be for us ! And now here we are so imperfect, 
and our thoughts and words and actions so unwor- 
thy of the complete Christian's name, and even our 
best works, if sifted either in the motive or their ex- 
tent, tainted or insufficient. How can we hope to 



l62 



SERMONS. 



pass at once from this state of imperfection into one 
of glor)' ; for to be with Christ and to be hke Him is 
glory. 

The solution is not difficult. Justice is appeased,, 
that we can understand. Christ has borne our sins 
and intercedes availingh' for His own, and no pur- 
gatorial fire is to cleanse the soul from guilt. — But 
how is it with holiness? Beloved, there is in this 
life a conflict going on in the Christian ; the nevr 
man created in him by the spirit of God, is indeed 
created in righteousnes and after the image of God. 
This is its very essence. This new-born spirit is 
set upon Christ, and in its true nature living to Him 
and following after Him. But he is opposed by the 
old man, the carnal nature, with which here he is 
united and surrounded by the evil and tempting in- 
fluences of sin and a sinful world. A strife, a deadly 
battle goes on between them, and at times the bet- 
ter spirit seems to fall before the powerful assailants. 
And as long as he thus divides the dominion of the 
soul with the carnal nature, and is exposed to all 
that abets this, he may often be forced to exclaim, 
Oh I wretched man that I am 1 '" Often he may 
complain that he suffers from the law of the flesli 
that is in him ; vet he stru^^les on, and Christ en- 
ables him to stand in the evil day, and having done 
all, to stand. 



SATISFIED. 



165 



I appeal to every Christian if in his heart of hearts, 
if in the deepest depths of his soul, there is not Christ 
set up as his Saviour and King — if the most earnest 
desire of his whole being is not turned to Him, and 
how he knows no greater glory than to live to Christ, 
and how he is determined, with every imperfection 
upon him, and every difficulty around him, rather 
to die than not be a Christian; rather to lose all 
than his hold on Christ and the hope of being like 
Him, and glorifying Him in life or death. I ap- 
peal to ever}^ Christian for the truth of this ; for 
where this spirit is not found there is no Christian 
spirit. But where it is found, the struggle may indeed 
be hard, and the issue at times apparently doubtful ; 
the battle is raging, the conflict may be fierce, and 
many a weak moment may surprise him and many 
a fault be committed; but the new heart is there, 
the new man, the Christ-born man is there, ham- 
pered and distressed by what is really foreign to 
him, but true to his Master in his bias, his resolves, 
his aspirations, his prayers, his aims, his hopes, his 
fears! Tlien death steps in! And that m.oment 
which buries the impenitent sinner with all the 
curses of guilt and corruption upon him, comes as a 
deliverer to the believer. — You all believe that with 
death our sorrows are ended, our cares finished, our 
tears wiped away ; a great change, brethren, and a. 



164 



SERMONS. 



real one. But it is as true that the reign of imper- 
fection then is over, the old man perishes with all 
his sins; the carnal nature drops off with the temp- 
tations and helps of a world, partially in the grasp 
of Satan; and freed from the body of death, the 
new man soars aloft and finds his true centre of 
gravitation unchangeably, and forever and ever, in 
the heart and holiness of Christ! All that the new 
man was on earth he is now. It is not a new life, 
but life, begun on earth, is continued in heaven; but 
what was begun in weakness and mixed with sin, 
now rises in strength, as an atmosphere encloses 
him which has not known sin; and what we might 
call the natural propensities and functions of the 
new man, born of the spirit, now develop in perfect 
harmony, as sin and temptation and imperfections 
are forever gone. The new man starts from the evrl 
dream of life while in a Avorld that lieth in evil, and 
is satisfied as he wakes in the likeness of Christ! 

Ah ! here is the great characteristic of the Chris- 
tian! his true aspiration: Christ in him the hope 
of glory! the glory: not of being seated among 
thrones and dominions, of wearing a crovv'n and re- 
ceiving the honours of heaven — the gloiy of being 
like Christ, holy and pure, perfect as God is perfect 1 

Here is perhaps the highest test of the Christian! 
When will he be satisfied? What is his highest 



SATISFIED. 



165 



hope? Xot^ beloved, that he escapes hell and gets 
to heaven; not that he shall be rewarded there for 
his labours and self-denials here, that he shall be 
•compensated for forgoing the pleasures of earth and 
time by the glory and bliss of eternity ; not that 
angels welcome him with songs of rejoicing and 
the arches of heaven ring with triumphal shouts; 
that he shall see the glorious city of God, and the 
tree of life, and the sea of crystal, and the golden 
streets of the new Jerusalem. 

Xo! all this was his alread}% while on earth — his 
by faith! all this and more than this! all these and 
greater things : even repentance and love and godly 
aspirations, the presence and communion with the 
Father and the Son, and the glory of purifying him- 
self even as Christ is pure; the happiness of loving 
poor, sinful, fallen men for Christ's sake, and per- 
haps bringing to them, as Christ did, the truth and 
comfort of the Gospel, and relieving aching hearts 
and soothing wounded spirits and winning souls 
for heaven; all was his here below! 

One thing he lacked, one thing only which made 
earth imperfect for the Christian and his happiness 
incomplete. For as long as it is God's will, he is 
content to walk by faith and not by sight; and 
apart from his indwelling sin, has no right to choose 
between serving God on earth, or serving Him in 



SERMONS. 



heaven. One thing alone icas missing ; perfect holi- 
ness — and oh ! he Hves on earth in the hope, and 
he descends into the grave with the assurance, and 
he rises to heaven with the shout: 

"I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy like- 



ness I 



A 




PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



1 6- 



Brefhre?t, I count not myself to have apprehended : but 
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are 
before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

Phil. iii. 13, 14. 

There are few texts, which to me as a struggHng- 
disciple after hohness, bring greater comfort and 
encouragement. It is a confession so thoroughly 
human, portraying my own humihating experience, 
and yet pointing me to the highest exercise of human 
powers and every godly energy, that it seems to be 
written especially for me and such as me. 

I confess that when I think of the many draw- 
backs to a spiritual course, the humiliating experien- 
ces which force us continually to cry for forgiveness 
of all our ''sins, negligences and ignorances," I can- 
not but feel some consolation when I see how even 
the greatest saints are exposed to the same exer- 
cises and pass through the same trials ; their very 
confessions of insufficiency and shortcomings bring 
encouragement to my soul, and teach me that I am 
but suffering what all must go through, who pass 
from the state of natural corruption to the life in 



i68 



SERMONS. 



God. And when I see them rise superior to every- 
thing and advance, I feel encouraged as by wit- 
nesses to my own triumph ; and I mark their 
course and the means of their success and weapons 
of their warfare, and ''go and do hkewise.'' It is 
thus that these words of the Apostle become so 
unspeakably dear and valuable to me; become the 
rule by which I determine my own course: ''for- 
getting those things which are behind, and reaching- 
forth to those things which are before, I press toward 
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God- 
in Christ Jesus.'" 

There is a negative part of our work as Christians 
there is a past replete with guilt and sin, with corrup- 
tion and error and wretchedness, a past of bondage 
and fear of death ; and we must be delivered from 
that. At the different stages of our progress this 
may assume different forms. It is an unlearning,, 
a striving against, a renouncing, a continued war- 
fare. 

But when we are most taught by the grace of 
God, and have best learned how in Him alone is 
our strength, then we will know that the most pow- 
erful weapon of defence against all the assaults and. 
difficulties which have impeded our cause is, " for- 
getting the things which are behind " — committing- 
them all trustingly into the hands of our Redeemer,, 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



169 



and assuming that He has dehvered us from them ; 
and that as long as we look to Him, and follow 
Him, and press on after Him, we are really re- 
deemed from their curse and power. Believe me, 
brethren, this most efficient mode of seeking deliv- 
erance from our spiritual bondage and condemna- 
tion is the true, the needful policy for all. For- 
getting the difficulties and sins and hindrances of 
your natural life ; assuming and trusting that Christ 
is able and willing to remove, and actually does re- 
move them, and takes charge of them for you : 
cease making your whole Christian life a warfare 
against what has kept \'Ou from Christ, a resistance 
against the besetting sins of your life. Cast them 
aside, as the samie Apostle says; cast them into the 
hands of the Saviour, and feel that you are free to 
enter upon the positive course of living to his praise 
and glory. Go not back into the dark caverns of 
the past; do not continually conjure up the spectres 
of your guilt, your sinfulness, weakness and in- 
sufficiency — but look ahead I look to Him 1 follow 
Him and concentrate all your efforts upon tJie course 
before you, the course of a Christian life and obedi- 
ence as God's dear children. Herein you shall find 
the alone remedy for all your failings ; hereby you 
shall learn how we come off more than conquerors 
through Him that loved us. 
15 



I/O 



SERMONS. 



This, our fleeing from the mere conflict against 
sin, our escaping from the low grounds of a miser- 
able defensive warfare into the upper regions of 
aggressive, growing hohness, into the steady obedi- 
ence of what Christ would have us do now and 
forever — this I conceive to be the true secret of the 
Christian life and Christian success. 

What, then, have we to forget, brethren ? 

I. Our guilt ! and this I hold to be the lowest 
lesson learned. The reluctance of going to Christ 
and taking His promises and invitation to ourselves 
because of the consciousness of our guilt is the first 
thing to be overcome and forgotten ! We cannot 
be Christians Avithout it ! Oh, I am such a sinner ; 
I dare not take these promises to myself, it cannot 
be that this miessage of pardon is for me." Is not 
this thought the great stumbling-block in the way 
of all, Avhen they are awakened and become con- 
cerned about their souls ? This is our first lesson ; 
and only when we have learned and beheve, that 
our guilt is gone — -washed away in the precious 
blood of Christ; that He is our propitiation, and 
that in Him we are justified and accepted — though 
our sins have been red as scarlet and crimson — 
though we know that we by nature and apart from 
Christ are in a just state of eternal condemnation i 
only when we have learned and believe this, only 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



171 



then have we left the bondage of the law, and the 
fear of death, and entered the family of God as His 
forgiven, His beloved children in Christ ! — You 
remember, in the Pilgrim's Progress, how Christ- 
ian toiled along with his load on his back ? 
Ah, as long as he walked oppressed with that, all 
was up-hill ; desire, but not hope ; resolves and le- 
gal fears, but no freedom, no power. But when 
he came to the cross and there knelt down, his 
burden fell off and was removed from that mo- 
ment. "He has given me rest by His sorrow arid 
life by his death ! " So* it is with all of us — the 
burden of guilt is entirely removed. Faith in Christ 
includes this. As long as a man struggles to free 
himself from it, so that he may be fit and worthy to 
come to Christ — struggle he never so hard and try 
every means: so long he has not the Gospel-faith 
and cannot enjoy the Gospel-peace ! No, he must 
assiujie his pardon upon God's declaration, must 
forget his guilt as one of the things which are now 
behind him, or he has no peace and cannot run his 
course except oppressed by the curse. Like the 
prisoner whose pardon is sealed and whose bonds 
are knocked off, the poor sinner who has brought 
.his guilt to Jesus and heard Him say, '*Son, daugh- 
ter, thy sins be forgiven thee," rises from the dust 
and leaps in the enjoyment of his freedom, and for- 



1/2 



SERMONS. 



gets his guilt as past; and if memory brings it up, 
it is only to raise his heart in gratitude to Him that 
saved him, and to devote himself, in a godly life 
and in the walk of that perfect liberty with which 
Christ has made him free, to His service and to His 
His glory. — "1 will have mercy on their unright- 
eousness and their sins I will remember no more." 
Surely, brethren, if God forgets them, not zue ? 

Forgetting those things which are behind, among 
them are — 

2. Our sins. This is more difficult, I admit. It 
is easier for a man to persuade himself that pardon 
is extended to him, than to feel the power of sin 
broken in his heart and life. Our sins assail us con- 
stantly and beset .us on all sides, and as long as we 
live. But just on that account, brethren, I say, the 
rule of the Apostle is so all-important — forget them, 
try to forget them. Look not to yourselves, but look 
to Jesus and His promises, believe in His victorious 
power and engage in the active course of holiness 
and good works ; and your attention may be drawn 
from them and you thus will be freed from their 
perilous influence. Their very remembrance has a 
pestiferous power; the very struggles to which you 
resort against them may rivet their image upon 
you, and thus perhaps their dangerous, engrossing 
power. It is one of the most humiliating experi- 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



ences we can make, that the devil often uses our very 
struggles as a means to continue in us the remem- 
brance, and with it, to some extent, the fascination of 
the sin we have renounced. Let the man that had 
fallen a victim to sensuality be touched by the spirit 
of God and become a Christian: the devil, you may 
be sure, will not cease plying him with the images of 
his former lusts. And do you believe, that a course 
of fighting against these sins, which would con- 
stantly bring up their power and allurements and their 
polluting remembrance, will be apt to ensure suc- 
cess ? Let a man even pray against them and think 
he strives against them in the strength of the Lord: 
I believe and I know that there may be danger even 
in this, and that the only course of safety is in flighty 
in forgetting them and reacliing forth to more pro- 
fitable occupations of our thoughts and time. — It is so 
with the reformed drunkard; it is so with every one 
that has lived in slavery to some darling sin ; and 
well would it be for all of us to heed this lesson. 

After all it is a form of self-righteousness to think 
we must renounce, z^^e must resist, we must do the 
w^ork of victory. No, beloved, it is more Christian 
and it is safer, to commit even our conflict with sin 
to the Lord ; and believing, that He is willing and 
able to save us, not only from guilt but also from 
sin^ its love and dominion — instead of seeking our 



174 



SERMONS. 



religious life in this defensive warfare, to go on in 
the positive course of Cliristian obedience, and forget 
07ir former sins in the absorbing thought of on r pres- 
ent duties and privileges. I cannot be of the opinion 
of those who — surely from very good motives and 
apparently with great plausibility, and from a high 
Christian stand-point — urge upon the sinner, in his 
prayers and self-examination to make special decla- 
ration to God of all his most heinous sins in thought, 
word, and deed. It seems to me they declare and 
demand only what they think a Christian ought to 
feel and do. They speak without any real experi- 
ence, any deep and humbling experience ; they do 
not speak of what they have seen and heard and 
felt, painfully, tearfully felt. I think Luther is right 
when, in opposition to this monkish kind of pen- 
ance, he warns men against hazarding the pollution 
of their imagination by this recapitulation and re- 
newing of sins and their images in detail. Do not," 
he says, ''stand picking the flaws out one by one, 
but plunge into the river and drown them ! " Yes, I 
can assure you, brethren, that the only certain way^ 
of victory over our sins, is to cast aside the very re- 
membrance of them, and by faith assitme ourselves 
delivered from them; to forget them and even ask 
God in earnest, agonizing prayer never to let us 
think of them again ; to forgive us if we even do 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



no longer pray against that sin which so easily be- 
sets us, and often by its very remembrance over- 
comes us anew ; ask Him to fill our mind with other 
things and, forgetting those things which, through 
faith in Him, we bury once for all, reach forth to 
better things before and engage actively in our new 
duties! 

And as it is with sins, so with errors ; the best 
way to free the mind from error is to fill it with 
truth. So it is with temptations. I know no other 
way to overcome them but to flee and plunge into 
some good, and godly, and sanctifying work. — So 
it is with our broken resolutions. Ah, brethren! go 
to God in the humbling sense that you have too 
often violated and broken your most solemn vows, 
and pray Him who alone can order the unruly wills 
and affections of sinful men," to take you in hand, 
rather than let you guide yourselves; to make you 
all you ought to be, enable you to do all He wants 
you to do, and ever to live before Him with the 
prayer Lord, what wilt TliQu have me to do?"' 

Forgetting the things which are behind, among 
them finally are : — 

3. Our attainments ! and this indeed is one of the 
chief points the Apostle makes : ''not as tho' I had 
already attained, either were already perfect." But 
is it necessary for me to dwell on this point now ? 



1/6 



SERMONS. 



Can any be here present, whatever their course may 
be in practice, who in theory at least and open con- 
fession, would say that they can rest on their at- 
tainments, and thank God that they have advanced 
so well and made such good use of their opportu- 
nities, and lived so consistently and close to the 
cross? No, brethren, I would rather have you give 
your thoughts to the things we have just spoken 
of, and be deprived of the true liberty and highest 
energy of the Christian, than rest at ease in your 
.profession and attainments. The first at least would 
humble you and perhaps lead you nearer the cross ; 
the last would deaden all spiritual life, and finally 
identify your hope with that of the hypocrite. 
There is no rest for us in the pursuit of our calling. 
The field grows the more faithfully we work 
it. Its prospect extends, the higher w^e rise. And 
he has lost the spirit of Christ who can sit down at 
ease; who forgets that the true secret of Christian 
perfection is this: ''forgetting all my attainments, 
and counting them but insufficient, and deriving 
nought from their remembrance but the trembling 
sense of insufficiency and the undying desire for 
more grace — I find my only safety and happiness 
in doing better than I have done in the past; in 
reaching forth to the things yet before me, to every 
time and every opportunity; and thus, in pressing 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



177 



forward towards the mark for the prize of the high 
calhng of God in Christ Jesus." 

Ah ! here it is where we meet our deepest sor- 
rows. How many Christians, how often do all of 
us, fall short in this particular ; how many think so 
much of their attainments which are behind, that 
they have no time and no heart to think of a new 
and better course before them ! 

Beloved, the Christian's watchword is, press to- 
zuards the mark. That mark is perfection ! Have 
we reached it? His course, the very essence of his 
life, is progress ! Can we look upon ourselves as 
Christians if we do not progress ? I mean, if we are 
not striving to advance ; for we cannot be satisfied 
with the progress we have made (take comfort in 
that thought, every earnest, mourning soul!) His 
great assurance is, that his high calling of God is in 
Clirist Jesus ; not apart from CJirist, nor beyond Him, 
(that would be a hopeless calling,) but ix Him, in 
whom is given us every promise of grace, suffi- 
ciency and everlasting blessedness ! In Him, the 
power of hope, which maketh not ashamed. In Him 
that love which overcometh the world and triumphs 
over sin and death ! 

And if this is my calling, dare I lag behind ? 
Brethren, dare I stay in condemnation when the 
spirit of Holiness is to change me into His own 



178 



SERMONS. 



image from glory to glory ? Dare I remain unde- 
cided and halt between two opinions when eternity 
is at stake, and Christ has bled for me and Christ 
ensures the victory? Dai'c I remain as I am? 
Oh I beloved, it is a blessed truth that ^re are bid to 
come "just as we are; " that Christ meets us in all 
our wretchedness ; that He came into the world to 
save sinners. But, dare zue remain so ? I trust 
there is no egotism in it, but I believe you can 
scarceh' find anv one who IS more urs'e nt than my- 
self in inviting }-ou to come "just as you are/" and 
pointing you to^the full, unlimited, unconditional in- 
vitation to the worst of sinners. But have I ever told 
you, ''remain as yon are — ^Remain just as we are ? 
Why, the very essence of the Gospel is this : That 
it changes us from sinners to saints, that Christ gave 
Himself for us, for this high and holy purpose, not to 
save sinners /;/ their sins and carry them to heaven 
in their carnal mind and corruption, but to redeem 
them and purih' them from all sin. Xo, zee ^o to 
sesns jnst for these things. Poor, wretched, blind, 
as we are, we come — but with the prayer: 

Sight, riches, healing of the mind; 
Yea, all I need in Thee to hnd 1 

^ ^ Thy love unknown 

Has broken every b:.rr:rr down ; 
Xow to be Thine — 

Tliiiie^ with all the desires of the heart, all the 



PRESS TOWARD THE MARK. 



179 



affections of the soul, all the efforts of my strength, 
the powers and faculties of my mind ! Tliinc, with 
all I am and have — 

Yea, Thine alone — 

Oh Lamb of God, I come I 



And now I say behold the offers and the provi- 
sions of the Gospel I Are they not sufficient for 
all, for every want ? There is the blood of Christ 
for your guilt — the power of His spirit and con- 
straining love against the power and love of sin — 
the aggressive, onward life of holiness against our 
unprofitable attainments. All is ready ! Are you ? 

To my unbelieving bretJiren I say, ''this one thing 
do :" Forget the past with its sorrows and sins and 
foolish hopes. Your reaching forth is, to go to 
Jesus and count all things but loss to win Him and 
know Him, and the power of His resurrection. Or 
your reaching forth is into hell-fire ; the mark to- 
wards which you are. pressing the pillory of eternal 
damnation. 

To the anxious enquirer, I say " this one thing do : " 
Go no longer about to establish your own right- 
eousnesSj dwell no longer on the fears of the past 
and your own hopeless condition. Forget self, look 
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, 
and find peace and righteousness and strength in 



i8o 



SERMONS. 



Him who came to call sinners, not the righteous, 
to repentance. 

BiLt to tJie Christian I say, ''press on, press to- 
wards the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus'' — 



Fight the fight, Christian, 

Jesus is o'er thee ! 
Run the race, Christian, 

Heaven is before thee ! 
Thee from the love of God 

Nothing shall sever; 
Rise, when thy work is done, 
^ Praise Him forever ! 





COUNT THE COST. 



i8l 



Which of y 021 intending to build a toiuer sitteth not down 
first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient ta 
finish it ? 

Luke xiv. 28. 

It hardly seems strange that this text should 
have been often used in justification of delay. 
''We must count the cost," and therefore must not 
hurry into a profession of religion — must put it 
off until we are sure all is right and every doubt 
and difficulty removed." But, in reality, the Sa- 
viour's parabolic language only reproves a shallow, 
superficial religion, not an honest confession of 
Christ made at once. He never allows of delay. 
''Now is the time," the only time, as in all Scrip- 
ture. '' Seek ye first the kingdom of God " refers 
to religion, not only as the main thing in impor- 
tance, but as the first in time. Whatever hinders 
or causes delay, is forbidden. " Let the dead bury 
their dead." — Christ did not reprove the multi- 
tudes for coming to Him, but for coming thought- 
lessly and for the wrong thing — for the bread which 
perisheth, and not the bread of life. — 

Eternity is before you^ my brethren, with its tre- 
mendous issues — you cannot help that — yoii must 
be Christians ox you are lost! that point is settled. 
16 



I82 



SERMONS. 



Yolt mitst be so at once — no reprieve of a ^^to-mor- 
row," no ^' convenient season." All our time is 
claimed by God. Just as I am " is the confession, 
for no previous qualification affects it. Too late'' 
will be the sad and hopeless lesson if we do not 
learn to-day," that we know not what the mor- 
row " may bring forth ! Therefore lose no time, 
but at once choose that course which alone can se- 
cure salvation, choose it in earnest, and as reason- 
able, accountable beings — ''the night is far spent, 
the day is at hand." 

Christianity is the fairest of all systems. There 
is no disguise, no holding back with God, nor can 
such be wath us in our relation to Him. People 
may attempt it with their fellow-creatures, may try 
to cheat themselves perhaps, but before God? "All 
things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him 
with whom we have to do." — 

Thus God does not withhold from us the true 
issues of our immortal souls. He does not lure us 
into the church without telling us openly what is 
involved in it. He lays all before us, the pros and 
cons^ and asks our intelligent and honest choice. 
And we, on our part, cannot pretend to enter His 
service and confess Christ vv^ith mental reserva- 
tions, or hope to smuggle ourselves into the King- 
dom of Heaven on false pretexts. There is no 



COUNT THE COST. 



183 



such thing as doing the work of the Lord deceit- 
fully. 

Brethren, like evervthino; else, relioion costs sovic- 
tiling. Our Saviour, so far from hiding this, speaks 
of going, if need be, against father and mother and 
every earthly tie and advantage, of cutting off the 
right hand and plucking out the right eye, rather 
than missing Heaven ; aye, risking life itself, to save 
the immortal, never-dying soul. 

It costs sovictliing to be a Christian, and z^e hare 
to pay it ! 

Let us know exactly what it is, and see if we are 
able and Vvilling to pay it; if, as it were, lue can af- 
ford it. 

\. Here, then, are the items on one side : 

What we must pay and sacrifice. 

I. TJie pride of the heart. — We love to think well 
of ourselves and feel elated, comparing ourselves 
with others that are less favoured by circumstances, 
or below us in attainments. A feeling^ of self-rio-ht- 
eousness has been and is the natural desire of the 
human heart. 

For what we call " the moral man," who prides him- 
self on principle and self-control and character — 
it becomes a terrible struggle to come down, as 
he thinks, to the position of a poor, miserable sin- 
ner, who has to sue for pardon and renounce all 



SERMONS. 



Tiope in self and be sa\'ed only by grace ! And 
yet, does not your conscience often whisper to you 
the truth, that all your claims are false, and that 
your life, without the grace of God, is a sham; at 
best, a shadow of better things to come? 

Here is the difference between the open sinner 
and the moral man : The first has, indeed, the ter- 
rible drawback of vicious habits and a life-long 
bondage in sin and crime, but just on that account 
knows well enough there is no place for him but as 
a suppliant for mercy. But the difficulty of the man 
who thinks he is all right, to see and confess him- 
self a helpless sinner ! The blind eyes must first 
be opened, cleared to see both the perfect standard 
of God's holy law and his own short-comings ; and 
the stiff heart must first break in the sense of un- 
Avorthiness and ingratiude to the love that brings 
the sacrifice for his s dvation, ere the choice can be 
made and the price paid down. 

2. Tlie love of the Iicart, its lusts and aspirations, 
the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, and the 
pride of life — and who does not know what this 
costs ? 

Resisting sin — which has grown up with us, 
grown Avith our growth and strengthened with our 
strength — which has gained the mastery over us by 
habit, w^hich is more than what w^e call second na- 



COUNT THE COST. 



ture, which is our real nature, so long as we remain 
in our unregenerate state, and which, in its count- 
less forms and temptations, besets us as long as life 
lasts. 

]\Iy dear brethren, if there was nothing but resist- 
ing sin, what would be our life ? It would be a legal 
bondage all our days, a hopeless life-long struggle 
against what the Apostle calls "the condemnation 
of the law," for by the law is only the knowledge^ 
not the cure, of sin. 

3. The sloth of the heart. — Its love of ease and 
self-indulgence, the abjuring of it in the stern reso- 
lution of following after holiness, with sacrifices and 
self-denials to follow " whatsoever things are true,, 
honest, just, pure, of good report, and do all to the 
glory of God!" 

Ah ! hard as that sounds, it is the very antidote 
of sin, the xtry power by which (with the help of 
God) we can overcome and rise to a new and better 
life — from slaver}^ to freedom. 

This statement, indeed, embraces all, but we may 
specify more minutely. Take the baptismal ques- 
tions, ratified in confirmation — 

I . Dost thou renounce the devil and all his works ? 
Of course, I do ! 

Ah ! but you don't know that if you do not serve 
Christ, you serve the devil 1 There is no neutral 



SERMONS. 



ground. And as little as the devil shows himself 
to you in his real form, so little does he approach 
you with the open demand to fall down and wor- 
ship him."' He may come as an angel of light and 
beguile the soul with specious pretexts and deceitful 
hopes of light and power and knowledge. But 
whatsoever does not lead }'ou to God and to His 
service through faith in Christ — call it self, or the 
world, or the prince of the world — it comes all to 
the same; it binds you to the apostate spirit, the 
adversary of God and man. 

2. The pomps and vanities of this wicked world." 
It is astonishing how different are the thoughts of 
God on this subject and the thoughts of man. In 
the Bible the world, worldliness, w^orldly-minded- 
ness," are represented as the very denial of godli- 
ness, the very essence of idolatry. With us — there 
is such a natural leaning towards it; we are our- 
selves so much hifluenced by its ways, which please 
the natural heart, that a pretended mantle of charity 
is cast over them as pardonable, natural foibles (ver\^ 
natural indeed 1) 

We speak of worldliness and conformity to worldly 
ways, and are answered: ah ! but is not this a minor 
point? will you not allow different opinions? and 
where is the line of separation? Certainly, on sin- 
gle points, there may be and are differences, but not 



COUNT THE COST. 



187 



if principle is touched. And I believe more souls - 
are ruined by the spirit of the world, by the hun- 
gering and thirsting after its honours, fashions, treas- 
ures, pleasures; by the slavish submission to its dic- 
tates, and temporizing with its overpowering influ- 
ence, than by anything else. Oh ! the toning down 
of religion and the standard of godliness ! By pro- 
fession Christ's peculiar people — and by everything 
else, just like all others in taste, desire, fashion, prac- 
tice, in the broad road which can only lead to de- 
struction ! 

Yes, peculiar ! but why so peculiar and particular 
in little things? — May I not do as others do? — 
Would it be wrong only once to taste the forbidden 
fruit and to know the sin which I am to avoid ? — 
Is there so much danger once more to touch it, to 
take, as it were, a last farezuell? Hozv far can I go 
without forfeiting my claim as a Christian? Is it 
wrong to do this or do that ? — instead of asking : is 
it right, is it edifying, good for my growth in grace^ 
a help to the Church, a glory to Christ? — And an 
impossible compromise is attempted ! 

3. ''The sinful desires of the flesh." 

Do not get angry with me, my brethren, if I say, 
with most of us more than the desires have to be 
renounced: the practice, the habit, open or secret! 
Every sin has to be given up, in the life, and even in 



188 



SERMONS. 



the desire, in the heart, out of which are the issues 
of hfe. — 

Are you ready to pay the price, to give up the 
darhng sin which has enslaved you, to cut off what 
is dear to you as a right hand or a right eye, can 
you, will you afford it? Ah ! I don't ask you to 
do it in your own strength. Are you willing to 
endeavoin' to do it, with the help of God and the all- 
sufficient grace of Christ? More cannot be asked, 
and that is all that is exacted of the candidate for 
baptism or confirmation. 

Again: ''Oi)ey God's holy will and command- 
ments," not some of them, but all; not now and 
then; not when you are baptized, confirmed, com- 
mune; not for a brief space of probation — but all 
the days of your life. Christianity is a very solemn 
thing, and Heaven a priceless possession. 

Are you ready to work the works of God, to 
work in His vineyard now, and as long as He has 
need of you? Take His yoke upon you and learn 
of Him the lesson of obedience and unselfishness ? 
be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord? Are you ready to do this? 
can yoit afford it? Ah ! not in your own strength; 
you are not asked to do that, but in the strength of 
Christ, who has promised His presence and suffi- 
ciency of grace. Are you prepared to run the race 



COUNT THE COST. 



189 



(to try it) which is set before you, with patience, 
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our 
faith ? To Hve by the prayer, Lord, what wilt 
Thou have me to do?" and to press towards the 
mark for the prize of the high calHng of God in 
Christ Jesus? 

I am deahng openly with you, fairly. I dare not 
deceive you. Such are the issues. — It may be diffi- 
cult, and but for the help vouchsafed and the plat- 
form of free grace and Christ's constraining love, it 
would be impossible. — It is difficult for flesh and 
blood. Even so! We do not deceive on that point. 
But, brethren, is it easy to learn Latin or Greek or 
French; to study mathematics or acquire skill in 
any art or occupation? And can we imagine it to 
be easier to learn the lesson of holiness and live as 
the children of God ? There are temptations — 
many ; but no temptation shall befall you which 
is not common to man, and from which He will not 
make a way of escape;" the thorn in the flesh 
is there and will not necessarily be removed," but 
His grace is sufficient for us." 
The world's persecution and sneers? But Christ 
left the blessing Blessed are they who are perse- 
cuted for righteousness' sake; " Blessed are ye if 
men revile you and persecute you, and shall say all 
manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." 



I go 



SERMONS. 



There is your business and its fancied import- 
ance, which hides the sight of God and eternity, 
and makes vou grrovel in the dust of earthliness ; 
but Christ saith one thing is needful.'' 

]\Iy brethren, do you not see that these very diffi- 
culties, if you mean to be saved and choose life, 
make ivnnediate decision necessary for yon? Every 
moment of delay increases your danger, makes the 
difficulty greater, the sacrifices involved harder, the 
price more costly. — You say the world has claims 
on you. Certainly ! But I say, only as Christians 
can you discharge your duty, be it in a private 
sphere or the public arena of life, "giving unto 
Caesar the things which are Cesar's, and unto 
God the things which are God's." 

There is your family, }'our business, your friends, 
the laws of societ}'. the fashion of the world. Very 
v\'ell ! If you are Christians you will knov.- how 
to serve God in all these, and how to behave your- 
selves, not only in the house of God, but as mem- 
bers of God's church in God's world, even His 
fallen world ; and these very claims of life shall be- 
come means of grace to teach you, in its relative 
duties, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance." 
But if they stand in }'our way to Christ, if you 
allow them to do so; that would be ''loving father 
or mother more than Christ.'' You make them in- 



COUNT THE COST. 



191 



struments of the devil, and must say get thee be- 
hind me Satan, thou savourest not of the things of 
God, but the things of man.'' 

You think rehgion offers you nothing but a joy- 
less life of self-denial and sacrifice. Ah I I don't 
know. There are joys peculiar to the Christian, 
which eve hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor 
the heart conceived. And I might say there is no 
higher life and greater bliss than self-sacrifice for a 
noble cause, than the loving service of God and 
His Christ. The service itself is its honour and its 
reward ! 

But suppose all you say is true. With your pres- 
ent taste you certainly deem it so. But the /act 
and the necessity remain the same. I cannot lower 
the terms of holiness. — In one zuord : are you ready 
to count all things but loss that ye may win Christ 
and know Him and the power of His resurrection? 
Caji yon afford it? Are you willing to pay it? 
Say so noiu^for nozj is the tune, 

n. I am sure you will allow I am honest in my 
statements. But now per contra. 

I might point you to the provisions made for all 
these difficulties, in the free grace and the unfailing 
helps of the Gospel, and set off every self-denial 
and sacrifice with the blessed hope set before us 
and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour 



192 



SERMONS. 



Jesus Christ," at whose second coming we shall be 
found with Him in Glory. Aye, I might set them off 
with the blessedness of His love and presence noiv. 
The sufficiency of grace, the joy and peace He 
gives to the believer, the sure promises of the Gos- 
pel, not only of the life to come, but also of that 
which now is. 

But you have been told that often, and you know 
it. Let me ask you, caii you a ford to do zvithout 
God and without religion, without the atonement to 
be admitted into eternity and the presence of God, 
without the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost 
to become meet for heaven and eternal life ? 

You have immortal souls. Can you afford to 
give up eternity for the brief existence of three- 
score years and ten ? Can you afford to risk eter- 
nal life for the pitiful gifts of this world, perishing,, 
passing away like the world itself? What shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole w^orld and lose 
his own soul ? " Suppose you do gain all, would it 
be a resonable, profitable exchange ? Would you be 
willing to stand by it in the last day, when Christ 
comes again and the judgment is set ? 

But look into real life. What does it give you ? 
w^hat do you get? At beat only a larger amount of 
the essentials of life to which the greatest wealth 
at last reduces itself What shall we eat and what 



COUNT THE COST. 



shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" 
A gilded form of what God, who feeds the fowls of the 
air and clothes the lilies of the field, gives to all His 
children ; which, at best, is yours but for a few brief 
years on earth, but iv^itli zuhich you have to take all 
its sorrows, trials, sufferings, and hopeless issues. 
Can you afford to make this your portion ? — But 
more : Can you afford to give up every high aspi- 
ration — all the "true glory of man ? The purity of 
heart, without which you never can see God ? The 
unselfishness, without which your heart can never 
be enlarged and taste of the powers of the world 
to come ? The love, without which God's love is 
no blessing to you, and the soul v/hich He made for 
Himself orphaned forever? The nobility, without 
which you cast away your highest glory and birth- 
right — the image of God ? 

Are you ready to give up the hope of a godlike 
life, because you prefer the groveling pursuits and 
beggarly elements of this fleeting time and vanish- 
ing earth? Are you ready to say, ''Worlds tlioit 
art my God^ my rule, my joy, my portion, my all! 
and I seek not the favour of God, nor His king-dom 
and righteousness?" To un-soul yourself and live 
the animal ? To un-man yourself and turn away from 
the bright hopes of humanity, and forswear that 
image of God in which man w^as first created, and 
17 



194 



SERMONS. 



which has been renewed in greater glory by the 
Incarnation and self-sacrifice of the Son of God, the 
second Adam ? To be content to live a low, de- 
based, degraded life, a life of »in that will revenge 
itself upon your soul, even here, and make you 
wretched in the contempt of self and the scorn of 
the world, and hurl you at last into a hopeless, dis- 
honoured grave ? Content to lead an unchristian 
life, without God and without hope in the world?" 

Oh ! weigh these questions ! Your character, 
your real being, your all for time and for eternity is 
involved in these questions and in their decision. 

And consider : What is on the other side ? The 
world cannot satisfy you, but Christ can! — There 
is pardon, acceptance, the citizenship of Heaven. 
There is comfort, peace, a good conscience. — There 
is a joyful looking forward to the rest that remaineth 
for the people of God. Endurance here of all the 
trials by the way, in patient waiting and faith. 
Power to live a godly and thus alone a truly hu- 
man life, and fulfil your every duty, and shed bless- 
ings around you, benefit your fellow-men and 
reap their love and respect. Blessings amidst the 
sorrows and tears and persecutions of the world, 
and even the dark hours of Christian discipline: the 
favour of God which is life, and His loving kind- 
ness which is better than life. 



COUNT THE COST. 



Strike the balances^ and say: zvhich will you 
choose, zihich can yoti afford? 

III. Once more : Cojint the cost. 

Ah ! you are not the only ones that have paid ! 
God hiiJiself has paid for your salvation ! He gave 
His Son ! 

Clirist has paid to purchase eternal redemption, 
paid in that blood which cleanseth from all sin, but 
cries vengeance upon every soul that despises and 
rejects it. Dare you reject that ? Can you afford 
to say ^'His blood be upon us and our children?'' 

I now ask, what is your verdict ? 

The love of God — this passing world ? 

Eternal life — a few moments of deceitful, disap- 
pointing hopes ? 

A high and holy nature — a nature depraved, 
corrupt, lost in the everlasting bondage to evil ? 

Salvation or Da:\ination — Which can you Af- 



ford ? 




196 



SERMONS. 



We are saved by hope. 
Romans viii. 24. 

Some men are saved by hope, and some men are 
lost by hope. Brethren, it is not mine to know the 
secrets of God's election, and the proportion of 
the redeemed and the finally doomed, nor to say if 
more are lost by hope or more are saved. But of 
this I am very confident, that of those w^ho are lost 
most, nearly all, are lost by hope! 

It is an awful thought : " Lost by hope !" Hope 
which, with its genial glow irradiates the darkness of 
this fallen world, and with its life-giving breath re- 
vives the dead and the despairing ! Hope, the gra- 
cious boon of God's love when His justice had en- 
tailed the curse upon our race; which sweetened the 
labour of Adam and turned it into a blessing; which 
alone calls forth all the powers of the mind, and ma- 
tures and developes the affections of the heart, so as 
to reclaim it from sinfulness and win it back to holi- 
ness and peace. Hope, the universal balm for the ills 
of life : There is no heart so desolate but it hears the 
voice of hope, no abode so dreary but it is visited 
by hope, no sigh so heavy but hope can lift it, no 
grief so deep but hope can smile through its tears. 



LOST BY HOPE. 



Hope! which quickens the faith of the Christian and 
strengthens his endurance ; v/hich casts its glance 
into the future and sends the soul within the veil, 
through its uplifted e}-es into the distant home, and 
clasps its hands in devout gratitude for that glory 
and that blessedness which are beckoning it to its 
eternal reward. Yes, Hope ! the brighest, surest, 
most-abiding angel ministering to us on earth, 
raising the guilty heart and drawing its affections 
heavenward. Can it, can it be true, that by it souls 
are lost? 

''Lost by hope!" I can understand how peo- 
ple may be lost by a fatal error in the grounds and 
subjects of hope. Sad experience and actual trial 
have taught us all to consent, in theory at least, to 
the truth, that ''the hope of the hypocrite shall 
perish," that " he that trusteth in his own heart is 
a fool," that the self-righteous is " ignorant of the 
saving righteousness of God ; " that the ceremonies 
and ordinances of the church cannot bring us to 
God unless we draw nigh to Him with the heart. 
There is but one hope which is good, which builds 
upon the rock everlasting; the hope in Christ, the 
good hope through grace. 

'' Lost by hope! " I can understand how a man 
may be lost in spite of every invitation and encour- 
agement of hope, that speaks to him of heaven and 



igS SERMONS. 

salvation, or warns him with the dread alternative 
of hell and damnation ; how he may be so engrossed 
in the enjoyment and the pursuit of earthly goods as 
to lose all ability to respond to the appeals that come 
to him from the invisible heights of the future, and 
give up all desire for peace and rest and happiness 
above and beyond the narrow circle in which he 
circumscribes his being; how he may be so much 
enslaved by the world, its joys and its cares, as to 
neglect both the promises and the warnings, and to 
live and die like the brute, without casting one 
thought, one sigh, one wish towards a better and a 
higher world. 

But to be "lost by hope," i e., by the act of 
hoping, by the exercise itself of this faculty which 
leads him to realize the future issues of our life, and 
makes him live in the anticipation of that salvation 
which stands before him as the goal of his exist- 
ence? — And yet, beloved, the painful truth is that 
the ruin of most souls is brought about, not so much 
by errors in doctrine, which make them cling to 
false grounds of hope, or by the want of aspiration 
for that immortality and blessedness which the hu- 
man heart all but instinctively craves. You admit 
the truth of the Bible and the necessity of obeying 
its call ; you acknowledge the claims of another 
world, and would not be without its blessed pros- 



LOST BY HOPE. 



pect for all this world could offer you. You hope, 
but, alas ! to how many among us may that hope 
prove a savour of death ? How many are there 
now, how many shall there be, when time is over in 
the realms of despair, who shall vainly cry and pro- 
test, ''JVe had hoped I "— 

There is a hope which appreciates the saving 
power of Christ and the reality of His redemption, 
and, therefore, rests on it and by faith rivets itself to 
Him and takes possession of His promises; climbs 
round after round the "santa scala" on which the 
penitent soul ascends from Calvary to the empyrean 
of God's presence; and all who thus hope are ''saved 
by hope." 

There is a hope which admits the saving power 
of Christ and the reality of His redemption, and, 
therefore, looks forzuard to the time w^hen it, too, 
shall rest on Him, and resolves, at some fiitiire day^ 
to seize its promises and accept its invitation. And 
all who thus hope are, to say the least, in danger of 
being " lost by hope." As long as they continue 
in this hope for a futiLre interest in Christ, and speak 
peace to their hearts by the resolution hereafte}' to 
make their peace with God, and evade the appeal 
and call of Christ's minister by putting him off to 
some convenient season ; so long they are in an ac- 
tual state of condemnation, and this very hope but 



200 



SERAI0X5. 



insures their final loss. All must be lost by their 
hope, who thereby are encouraged to put off the 
work of religion, were it only from day to day. 

And novv', my brethren, is not this the condition 
of almost ever}' impenitent soul before me ? You 
admit the truth of Christianity and the imperative 
character of its precepts, but you encourage your- 
selves in disobedience dj' tlie Icope of a future re- 
peutanee. There are none before me, I feel very 
certain — there are scarcely any anywhere — who say 

I intend to live and die in my sins and never mean 
to be a Christian." Oh. no 1 all protest that they 
hope to be Christians and obtain salvation, but thev 
ruin all by not being Christians //cTc', by not coming 
to Christ now when He calls, now that life is theirs, 
now in the accepted time, the day of salvation. 

I say. they ruin everydiing. For, brethren, cher- 
ishing this foolish hope of a future repentance, a 
future day when to seek and secure and profess an 
interest in Christ — why, for the prjesent, they are 
doing nothing to bring it about ; they have fixed 
their religious life at some indefinite future day, and 
in the meantime they live on just as they have 
lived; /. t*., as lost, hell-doomed, perishing, worldh', 
Christless sinners I And more, the very prospect 
of a future religious life, which they have in view, 
and which they know involves the renunciation of 



LOST BY HOPE. 



201 



all their sins, perhaps makes them turn with the 
c^reater zest and eacrerness to the indul^-ence for a 
season of those pleasures and practices of Avhich 
that dreaded future day of religion, for such it be- 
comes in their eyes, is to deprive them; and thus 
they may go on sinning worse and worse and be- 
coming more and more unable to renounce it. And 
then, do you think they'll find it easier than now ? 
Then, when the chains of their bondage are riveted 
faster around their unholy souls, when the continued 
practice of sin has driven out more and more the 
very desire for that change which now, at least, they 
can hope for ; then they'll be prepared to do with 
ease and readiness, that which now they find so 
difficult — give up sin and live unto God, and come 
to Jesus. Ah ! then that future day will be put off 
and put off till its very remembrance fades away 
from the mind, and it is adjourned indefinitely and 
quietly dropped; and vainly, vainly recalled, when 
they themselves shall drop into the grave and ad- 
journ to another world I Can inconsistency, can 
perverseness, go farther? 

All things are ready on the part of God. He is 
ready to pardon you, the Saviour is ready to sprin- 
kle you with the blood of cleansing, the Holy Spirit 
is ready to purify and new-create your hearts, God's 
Word lies opon before you and shows the way so 



202 



SERMONS. 



plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need 
not err therein ; the herald of the cross even now 
calls upon you to turn and live ! You, you alone, 
are not ready. The day of decision is ready ; for let 
that great assize of the universe be as far off as it is 
possible for the human mind to form a conception 
of an interminable length of time, the question is 
settled at the moment of death — ^judgment is ready, 
the impenitent condemned already," the be- 
liever saved ''now ! " Heaven is readv; its king-dom 
is within you. Hell is ready : the awful pit, on 
whose slippery^ brink you stand, is ready to swal- 
low you up. But you are not ready ! Not ready to 
be rescued from that perilous spot, though the hand 
of Infinite Mercy is stretched out for }^our salvation ! 
Not ready? when nothing is required of you but 
to trust yourself to the pardoning and sanctifying 
power of Christ ? Not ready ? when no preparation 
is asked at your hands but to resolve, from this day 
onward, to try, by divine grace, to do better and 
obey God's will ? Not ready? when every supply 
of help and every power necessary for your success 
is promised you in Christ, and when no length of 
time and no amount of effort on your part can bring 
you relief and help, until you have first gone to 
Christ, who alone can prepare you for heaven? 
Yes ! But you cannot make a profession of reli- 



LOST BY HOPE. 



203 



gion before you repent. And who asks you to make 
that profession without repentance ? Repentance 
is its very essence; i. e.^ turning from your sins to 
live unto God, and this we bid you do through 
faith in Christ. But you cannot profess Him with- 
out faith. And who asks you to do that? We bid 
you come to Jesus now, just as you are. You 
never can come otherwise than as sinners to be both 
pardoned and sanctified by Him; and this coming 
to Jesus, this flight of the soul from its state of con- 
demnation and corruption into His saving arms, is 
Faith. 

You say you hope to repent, you hope to exercise 
faith ? What are you doing in the mean time ? If 
you are putting off the question of religion, is that 
the way to get repentance ? If you immerse your- 
selves anew in the cares and occupations of the 
world, and shut out God from your sight, thinking 
to come to Him hereafter; if you identify all your 
interests with this world, postponing for future con- 
sideration every claim of God and His Christ, is 
that the way to have your faith called forth and 
strengthened? Brethren, He that w^ills the end 
also wills the means! 

But ah ! may I not tell you, that in your best ex- 
cuses you are not quite sincere ! That it is, after 
all, your unwillingness to be Christians 7iow^ which 



204 



SERMONS. 



keeps you from Him — not your want of preparation ? 
There is but one way to solve the question, but one 
way to escape from the labyrinth of your number- 
less doubts and fears and drawbacks, your miserable 
little excuses by which, now this point now that, 
now a most tender regard for your own consistency, 
now the sneers and remarks of the world around 
you, are put up as pretexts. The only way to escape 
from all this is just to go to Jesus, just to cry 
^' Lord, save or I perish," ''Lord I believe, help 
Thou mine unbelief," ''Lord, be merciful to me a 
sinner," " Lord, remember me," " Lord, make me a 
clean heart and renew a right spirit within me!" — 
" Lost by hope! " You hope for a future day of 
God's power. That day is nowhere promised, but 
the day and the moment of promise is the present ! 
And all experience proves, your own experience 
will tell you, the longer you put it off the harder 
the struggle will be, the more hopeless your case ! 
It is not the aged nor those who, year after year, 
have sat under the preaching of the gospel and 
heard its calls and reproofs, and heard them in vain, 
that we can have much hope of All they can do 
is to resolve and act at once^ ere the last chance is 
gone and '' the door shut." But ah ! who, even of 
the youngest, has either the days of his life or the 
days of his grace in his power ? 



LOST BY HOPE. 



205 



You hope for your passions to be cooled, for your 
state of mind to be better, for your strength to be 
greater to resist sin, for your preparation to be 
finished, for your hope to be confirmed that you 
will not sin again and bring discredit on your pro- 
fession ? No such hope leads to life ! One passion 
may pass away — property, business, pleasure; and 
another starts up and clings even to the old man as 
he stoops to the grave. If you stay away from 
Christ and the means of grace you cannot gather 
strength, you cannot hope to walk as a child of 
God; and the longer you put off the work of re- 
ligion for such reasons, the more your heart will be 
alienated from Him, the less able you will be to 
turn to Him and surrender to His saving grace. 

Oh, ye the young ! there is nothing more beau- 
tiful than to see the young man or maiden start on 
their course of life in the strength of the Lord God; 
nothing more sure of success than to have the Lord 
for your God and help — but oh ! to see them harden 
their hearts, now so impressible ; to see them go 
forth into the dangers of this life without the arm 
of Christ to lean on, without the restraints of His 
fear upon them ! It all but ensures their ruin I 
And that very hope by which they put off the work 
of religion now, is but the weapon of the adversary 
to make their ruin more certain. If not now, when 
18 



206 



SERMONS. 



will you seek the Lord? when can you hope to find 
Him? Not till He finds you on tJie day of jitdg- 
nient! 

You hope in the mercy of God? That mercy is 
extended to you 7iow^ and pleads with you in ac- 
cents of love and by tokens of affection, the neglect 
of which must increase your guilt and condemna- 
tion. His voice goes forth to you this day. Can 
you resist it? If so, will it not sound more faintly 
to-morrow, or next year; and perhaps lose its power 
upon you entirely ! Have you never heard that 
Scripture My spirit shall not always strive with 
man?'' 

Beloved, you may rest assured, that I am the last 
9 person in the world to cut off any one from true,, 
evangelical hope. Myself a sinner and in daily 
need of forgiveness and hourly supplies of grace, 
I know how precious, I know how gracious and 
free it is. And with the full knowledge of this 
truth of God, and with the solemn sense of my re- 
sponsibility, feeling how the blood of your souls 
will be required of me if I teach you falsely, I affec- 
tionately and authoritatively extend to all, the best 
and the worst among you alike, those who think 
themselves strongest and those who think them- 
selves weakest alike, those who have profited most 
and those who thus far have profited least by the 



LOST BY HOPE. 



207 



teaching of God, I offer to all the invitation of my 
[Master and bid them " come to Him," and now, 
this day, rest your hope in Him! And I say, it is a 
good hope, that shall not make you ashamed ! 

But to put off! to hope for a future day? to say to 
Christ, " Go Thy way — not to-day," to wait even for 
the morrow — oh ! it involves dangers which I fear 
to contemplate. There is no promise for the morrow 
in the Bible. Hope, true hope, fades for all who 
turn from God now. I only know that tins is the 
day of salvation, tliis the accepted time ; but that 
he who trusts in a future day may pass the bounds 
of grace, may be lost eternally, lost by his false 
hope Ephraim joined to his idols, and God say- 
ing, ' Let him alone !' " 

There is a time, we know not when, 

A point, we know not where, 
That marks the destiny of men — 

To glory or despair. 

There is a line, by us unseen, 

That crosses every path ; 
The hidden boundary between 

God's patience and His wrath. 

To pass that limit is to die — 

To die, as if by stealth. 
It does not quench the beaming eye, 

Or pale the glow of health. 



208 



SERMONS. 



The conscience may be still at ease, 

The spirits light and gay ; 
That which is pleasing still may please, 

And care be thrust away. 

But on that forehead G 3d has set, 

Indelibly, a mark ; 
Unseen by man, for man, as yet. 

Is blind and in the dark. 

And yet the doomed man's path below 
May bloom, as Eden bloomed ; 

He did not, does not, will not know. 
Or feel, that he is doomed. 

He^knows, he feels that all is well. 

And every fear is calmed ; 
He lives, he dies, — he wakes in hell ! 

Not only doomed, but damned ! 

Oh ! where is this mysterious bourne, 
By which our path is crossed ? 

Beyond which God himself has sworn 
That he who goes is lost ? 

How far may we go on in sin ? 

How long will God foi bear ? 
AVhere does Hope end, and where begin 

The confines of despair? 

An answer from the skies is sent : 

Ye that from God depart, 
While It is called ' to day repent', 
And harden not your heart." 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



209 



Having, therefore, these pro7nises, dearly beloved, let 
us cleanse ourselves from all filtliiuess of the flesh and 
Spirit, perfecting lio lines s in the fear of God, 

II. CcRIN'JHiANS vii. I. 

The religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ acts upon His followers in a two-fold man- 
ner. It puts tlicni in a state of safety and ever- 
lasting happiness, for ''there is no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus;" and?/ puts upon 
them a holy ar.d divine character, for "they walk 
not after the flesh, but after the spirit." This con- 
dition and this character of the Christian always go 
hand in hand. 

The object of the wondrous grace of God is cer- 
tainly the happiness of our poor fallen race; but 
only as it is connected with its holiness. God would 
never have sent His Son into the world to save be- 
ings that would continue unholy. Only in this con- 
nection both the purposes of God and the interests 
of man can stand. The happiness of beings changed 
from sinners to saints, the new creation of the power 
of His holiness, is the highest glory of God which 
is revealed to men and angels. The holiness which 
is engendered in the heart of man by the promise 



2IO 



SERMONS. 



of such happiness and the knowledge of the love 
which brought it to him. is the hio-hest element in 
his happiness. 

Tlic promise comes from above ; the happy state 
of salvation and immortal blessedness in the recon- 
ciliation of God, is prepared/^;- us from i-oitliout by 
another, even our Saviour. Tlie holiness which 
forms the character of those who are endowed by 
His grace with this happiness, is developeei from 
zvithin, in the heart of man, b}' the powerful agency 
of the Spirit of holiness. • 

The great thing, then, for men to do is, — resting 
on the promises of God and believing in the power 
of the Saviour — to purify themseh'es as He is pure, 
to learn of Jesus, who gives them rest, and strive 
to be like Him. This is being a Christian ! 

Let us cleanse ou is elves from all fililiiness. Here 
Ave learn, first, that the earliest work of the Christ- 
tian (and, alas, owing to our defiled nature, the 
strength of sin, the weak hold of all that is good 
and holy, the powerful hold and influence of the 
world, which lieth in evil, it continues his work 
unto the end of this life below) is a conflict voitJi evil, 
a renunciation of sin ^ a process of purificatioji. And 
by this very confession, by the vow we take when 
entering Christ's Church, " to renounce the world, 
the flesh and the devil," we acknowledge our sinfuh 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



211 



nature, and our state of condemnation and corrup- 
tion, out of which we are dehvered by the grace of 
God. 

And, secondly, we learn how broad the command- 
ments of God are, how tliorougli must be the Chris- 
tian's work: from all Jilthiness, from all and every 
sin ! Herein the Christian scheme differs so essenti- 
ally from all the various schemes of reformation 
which have been pressed upon us. It alone makes 
of man a new creature! It sets him against all sins, 
not this or that one which may be so glaring and 
so destructive to worldly success and respectability 
among men, that in their renunciation God need 
not have any share or glory. It kiun^^s no sin 
ivliicJi its disciple dare indulge in. He who is a 
Christian at all, fears God and knows that he breaks 
the whole law if he offends in one point. He 
knows no venial sins, no indulgences which he 
may adopt by way of compensation for others 
which he denies himself His law forbids every 
sin; and more — it leads him to contend against 
sinfulness, against the evil that is ZK^nthin, against 
the corrupt bias of the heart. He must not only 
regard the whole breadth of God's commandments,, 
but he must go the full length of it ; pursue sin 
beyond and beneath its outward phenomena and 
attack it in the heart. He cleanses himself from 



212 



SERMONS. 



all filthiness not only of the flesh, but also of the 
spirit. It is the motive which, after all. qualifies 
the act: and the Christian must clear that, clear 
the ground, tear up the evil root, and not be 
satisfied with mere pruning. In the lieart lust is 
conceived ; there he attacks it and conquers it, and 
there, too, prevents its bringing forth sin ; /;/ tlie 
lieart it is that covetousness s-ts up its idols, and 
there the Christian must defeat it. And it is this 
searching character of his holiness which unmasks 
many an act which the world might praise; his 
pra}-ers, his charitable deeds, his self-denials — all 
are Vv^eighed in the spiritual balance of the law of 
Jesus and found wanting, if the principle is wrong. 
x-\nd in the heart and spirit he discovers sins which 
the world scarcely knows or frowns upon ; pride, 
self-lo\'e. unbelief, and ever\'thing that exalts man 
and puts down God and His Christ! 

Oh, my brethren, is it wonderful that the Chris- 
tian should have such a deep sense of human 
depravity, when he has learned it by searching his 
own heart according to such rules ? And can we 
look upon those who, against the testimony of 
God, exalt the grandeur of the human soul and 
deny the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness 
of the heart, otherwise than as guilty of using a 
false balance and deceitful weights? If you want 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



213 



to know the Christian try him on these points. 
Try yourselves, brethren, before God and your con- 
science. If vou are at ease in vour own mind, 
careless as to sin or duty, without a deep sense of 
your sinfulness, you have not striven as you ought 
to do, to cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of 
the flesh and spirit. For all those who have not 
learned to condemn themselves, have neither learned 
to know God's law nor themselves ! — And nothing 
makes the Christian walk more warily and circum- 
spectly; nothing keeps him closer to Jesus, and 
more fearful of temptation and even the appearance 
of evil; nothing, therefore, frees him more from these 
very abominations, and from everything that God 
looks upon as filthiness ; nothing makes his character 
shine brighter and qualifies him better for the highest 
attainments of godliness, than this humbling con- 
viction of his own sinfulness and weakness, which 
makes him kneel at the foot of the cross and pray 
^'make me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit 
within me." And nothing, surely, can raise his 
love to Jesus higher, than the consciousness of all 
the innumerable sins which only His love that 
passeth understanding could forgive, " for to 
whomx much is forgiven, the same loveth much." 

But more; the Christian's virtue is not viercly 
negative. It does not consist in only abstaining 



214 



SERMONS. 



from sin. // perfects holiness. It goes out after 
everything that is true and honest and just and pure 
and lovely and of good report. It follows the ex- 
ample of the Master and goes about doing good it 
searches out ways and means to glorify the Saviour 
and adorn His profession with all the Christian 
graces, and become as ''a burning and shining 
light," to His praise and glory. Its aim is ever 
omvard; perfection^ and notldng bnt perfection satis- 
fies him, for all else falls short of the glory of God. 
He rests in His faith indeed, and fears no storm that 
could move him from the Rock of Ages. And 
though his horizon be dark and his own corruptions 
make him weep and mourn, he still lights up his dark- 
ness with the undying flame of faith and hope. 
But his faith is not alone; it has creative energy and 
is surrounded by all the graces of the Gospel ''love, 
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
meekness, temperance." In them he follows the 
bright example which Christ left His disciples ; and 
the Christian, who is God's workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus 2tnto good works," grows unto the 
perfect man, ''unto the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ." Thus he perfects holiness 
in the fear of God. In the fear of God, brethren ! 
Tlds is the principle which distinguishes all, even 
liis least important acts, from those of others. 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



215 



they are all ''begun, continued and ended in God^ 
and thus only are they tndy CJiristian acts; 
thus only sufficiently guarded against every temp- 
tation and every evil ; thus only sufficiently supplied 
with needful strength and light, and thus only the 
Christian is enabled to fulfil the great command- 
ment of God, to seek tliat holiness zuhich is 2into the 
Lord. 

I have thus, very feebly, drawn the outlines of the 
aims, the strivings, the whole character of the 
Christian; that holiness which distinguishes him 
from all others. Deficient as the image is, I yet 
boldly ask: show me one in all the history of the 
world, in all the products of imagination,' in all the 
dreams of philosophy, that can compare with it. 
Aye, Brethren, even if Christianity were what its 
enemies would fain make it out to be, a mere fable, 
a fond delusion; if that fable is able to bring about 
such results, and educate such characters, the like 
of which nothing else has ever produced; if that 
delusion furnishes the world with the only specimen 
of perfect truth and highest virtue; if it converts 
and has converted millions from profane, idle, de- 
bauched lives, into sober, righteous and godly men ; 
if it has furnished a code of morality, in compari- 
son with which the highest productions of Greek 
or any other philosophers are abominations, and 



2l6 



SERMONS. 



not only furnished the code but illustrated it hy 
living examples; and if, as all history proves, what- 
ever is great and glorious has been fostered by it, 
and the noblest, the highest, the most intellectual, 
and most permanently useful men that ever adorn- 
ed our race, have formed a halo round her crown 
which sheds a brighter light upon the annals of 
humanity than all else; then I still, and every rational 
being still, would rather follow t/izs fable^ than all 
the inefficient and effete abortions of a high sound- 
ing, but in comparison with it, not only a lozv-bom 
but a lozu-keepin^ philosophy, or all the scurrilous 
impostures which have made fools of those who 
deemed thelnselves too wise to believe the Bible. 

Yes, the moral results of CJiristiariity are perhaps 
the strongest proof of its divinity. There is no enthu- 
siasm or fanaticism here, no temporary success, but 
a settled principle that has been victorious at all 
times and among all nations and classes of men. 
A principle with which none but the libertine^ 
none but those who are willing to boast of their 
shame can find fault; a universal fitness, even in its 
language, in all its sentiments, in every reproof, in 
every promise, which has never left an inquirer 
without an answer, and a penitent without comfort; 
and a life-giving power which has lijiqij^ the canvass 
of this world's tableau with a shining train of saints,. 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



217 



from its founder down to the humblest Christian in 
this house, before which all other glories of this 
world fade away. If this institution were not di- 
vine, if its author were not God, surely old Gama- 
liel's saying was full of wisdom — it would have 
come to nought. But as it is of God it cannot be 
overthrown ; the gates of hell itself shall not prevail 
against it. And has it ever struck you that noth- 
ing ever has opposed it but what comes from hell 
or goes there ? Bez^'arc ! 

But the great question for us, my brethren, to de- 
cide is this : Can we claim for ourselves this char- 
acter of holiness which has been shown to be insep- 
arable from the state of salvation into which Chris- 
tianity puts its votaries? Let each one ask, Am I 
thus holy ? And is there one who does not bow 
his head in sorrow and confusion, and smite upon 
his breast and say, " God be merciful to me, a sin-, 
ner!" 

My dear Christian brethren, if it was necessary 
for the Christian to boast that he had already at- 
tained, either were already perfect, what hope would 
there be for us? No, thank God, the 'Christian 
stands in the righteousness of Christ and not his 
own ; and Paul himself has tau^^ht us to distincfuish 
between attainments and aims or aspirations "not 
as though I had already attained, but I press towards 
19 



2l8 



SERMONS. 



the mark !" No true Christian ever boasted of his- 
attainments, but all tnie CJiristitms aim at nothing 
less tlian perfection. 

The demands of God's lazu we cannot lower. 
Whether you are Christians or not, professors of 
. rehgion or not, tliey ivill be made on yon. Whether 
there be a Christ or no, you must — if you do not mean 
to remain as you are condemned already," to re- 
main dead here and in all eternity — you must cleanse 
yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, 
and live unto the Lord, "perfecting holiness in the 
fear of God." This mnst be your aim if you mean 
to have any hopes at all, whatever your premises be. 

But behold hozv large a7id hozu gracious the offer 
which is made us, which is made to all, just in this 
Gospel which we preach, just in the revelation, 
which takes the high ground we have laid down. 

There is full, plenary forgiveness promised and' 
ensured to all who will accept Jesus as their Sa- 
viour. There are none who do not come under its 
provisions ; none who are at heart worse ; none, I dare 
say, who are worse in their lives than some of those 
were who have availed themselves of the invitation 
and laid hold by faith on the promises set before us. 
''Though your sins be as scarlet and red like crim- 
son, they shall be as white as snow and as wool."' 
What Christian is there who does not confess, that 



PERFECTIXG HOLINESS. 



219 



if it was not for this promise there would be no hope 
for him? Are your sins, my impenitent brethren, 
worse than these and of a deeper dye than scarlet and 
crimson ? Oh I look upon your Saviour I look upon 
Jesus, who, from the cross where He died for you, 
prayed for your forgiveness, and has said to all "Come 
unto ]\Ie and be ye saved, all the ends of the world 1 " 
Look upon Him and take His salvation, for Avhose 
sake alone all who ever have gone or shall go to 
heaven have been pardoned and blessed with an 
everlasting salvation. You are just bid to throw 
your sins upon and thus freed from their bur- 

den and their guilt, accepted His name by God, 
who will welcome you as beloved children : to resolve^ 
under the influence of that same grace which offers 
you life eternal, to devote yourselves to a new and 
better life; to renounce all filthiness of the flesh 
and the spirit and strive to perfect holiness, in the 
fear of God." This is all! all! And is it possi- 
ble that men will refuse? That you, my dear, my 
beloved brethren, for whose souls Christ died, to 
whom heaven has been opened by His death and 
passion ; for whose salvation your pastors, your 
friends, the whole Church of God bow their knees 
and offer up their warmest prayers — that you will 
refuse the salvatioa offered? Look upon those 
promises, survey those blessings ! 



220 



SER^IOXS, 



There is God the Father waiting to be gracious. 
There is Christ, the beloved, who underwent all 
that suffering for you and now beseeches you to let 
Him save you, and present \'ou, holy and blameless, 
to His and your Father 1 There is the Holy Spirit 
who has been Avrestling with }'ou long and not yet 
Avithdrawn, and urges }'ou on the Avay to holiness 
and bliss, and woos you to the abode of safety, Avho 
engages to help and guide you and to beat down 
Satan under your feet I Heaven, from one end to 
the other, is in league Avith you and interested in 
vour victorv, and its holv ano-els are waitino; to 
welcome you and to rejoice over every sinner that 
repenteth ! There are the millions saved by the 
same salvation which is offered to }'ou, a cloud of 
witnesses to the blood and spirit of Jesus, to cheer 
you on and meet you in the blessed mansions — 
perhaps an honored father, a loving mother, who 
even in heaven remembers her prodigal child; a 
son or daughter gone before, and now whispering 
to vou in the stillv nicrht when vour evil conscience 
beds you on a restless couch, and speaking heavenly 
words to you in dreams, and saying " Come ! " 
There are friends, and brothers and sisters, wives 
and husbands, who never say a prayer, but your 
soul is prayed for ; who never look you in the face 
but to watch the signs of quickening grace ! A^id 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



221 



more ! there is the promise of help, the promise of 
sufficiency, of strength according to your days, the 
promise that no temptation shall befall you from 
which God will not deliver you; that all things shall 
work together for your good ; the promise that 

*' The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose, 
He will not, He will not desert to His foes ; 

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake. 
He'll never, no never, no never forsake I *' 

Oh ! my impenitent brethren ! you who have re- 
sisted so many calls, what can I say to you ? Do 
you not feel, do you not know, that we are right 
and you are wrong? That we urge you to the onl}" 
course of safetv, whilst vou are in the straight road 
to perdition ? Do you not know and feel, that iliis 
life in which alone you can escape and make your 
calling and election sure is short, is uncertain ? 
What security have you that another day will be 
allow^ed you in which to make your peace with 
God? 

Lo I on a narrow neck of Jand 
'Twixt two unbounded seas you stand : 
Yet how insensible I 
A point of time, a moment's space 
Removes you — wJiere ? 

Where? 



Oh ! that I could burn this question into your 



222 



SERMONS. 



souls : Where ? " That it might accompany you 
wherever you go, and force itself upon your atten- 
tion every hour and moment of your lives, in every 
company, at every occupation, and haunt you with 
its import, till you have sought the peace which 
alone can give you rest ! ' 

Do you not know and do you not feel that an 
eternity is before you, an eternity of woe or bliss^ 
and that its issues depend on your choice here ? 

Oh think, when heaven and earth are fled 

And times and seasons o'er, 
^Vhen all that can die shall be dead, 

T\\2X yoti shall die no more. 
Oh where will then your portion be, 
Where will you spend eternity? 

Wliere? Where? Oh, that I had a thousand- 
tongues to haunt you with this question, and let it 
sound and resound in your ears, when my voice 
has died away — ''where?" 

Thank God, you still have space and time for re- 
pentance. Once more you are privileged to hear 
the Gospel, once more you are called upon to make^ 
your choice. 

And now in the name of God Almighty, I lay 
this claim before you ; and ere you cross this thres- 
hold, ere you add once more the sin of receiving- 
Christ's grace in vain to your long, long disobedi- 



PERFECTING HOLINESS. 



223 



ence to his call of love, I tell you choose. By all 
the authority of God, by all the love of Jesus, by 
the hopes and fears of your immortal soul, choose f 

You cannot leave this house without receiving or 
rejecting Christ in your heart. You cannot leave 
this house without choosing whom you will serve. 

Mark the alternatives, and may God guide you in 
your choice ; I shall remind you of it in the other 
world: that you cannot go from these sacred pre- 
cincts to-night without one of these alternatives. 
No other issue is possible. 

YoH either resolve, 
God, I will give Thee my heart, Jesus, I accept 
Thy promises, and with Thy grace assisting me, 
I will cleanse myself from all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear 
of God." 

Or, 

God I defy Thee, Jesus I spurn Thy promises, 
and I will not cleanse myself from all filthiness of 
the flesh and spirit. I will not perfect holiness in 
the fear of God." 

And can you blame the Gospel, if of such it 
saith. ''these shall go into everlasting punishment, 
but the righteous into life eternal." 



224 



SERMONS. 



/ mn TImte — save me. 
Ps. 119, 94. 

Wo7'k out your own salvation I 

Phil. ii. 12. - 

''Lord, I am Thine, save me!" is the cry which 
ascends from the deep heart of the Psalmist to the 
throne of grace of God in heaven. — It is a wonder- 
ful prayer! It involves the most blessed assurance 
of perfect security, Lord, I am Thine and yet^ 
with it all goes the wrestling, agonizing cry save 
me!" The complete rest of the soul in Christ, the 
rock of ages; but with it, the ever-realized necessity 
of the soul, with the saving help of God still to 
make its calling and election sure. 

The two ideas run parallel through all scripture. 
*' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved " indeed embodies both. — My brethren, 
if you had your Bibles with you, I could lead you 
from text to text to prove that that belief, and that 
belief 07ily^ involves a present salvation ; and there 
is no future salvation ivliicli does not begin in the 
present. He that hath the Son " (believeth on Him) 
hath, h-a-t'h life — not shall have I And from the 
same Bible I could confirm the words of my other 



god's saving and ours. 



225 



text, ''Work out your own salvation;" ''Present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable 
unto God;" "Strive to enter in;" "Press toward the 
mark;" "Wage a good warfare;" " Be thou faith- 
ful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life 1 

Xow, is not this a most important, is it not the 
vital question for the Christian? What is tlit rela- 
tion of tlie tico? GocV s rcork and our luork ? Where 
does grace end and work begin ? or, vice versa, 
work end and grace begin ? The line is invisible; 
for in one aspect all is of grace, beginning, middle 
and end — the willing and the doing ; in another all 
points to our work — even the response to the call, 
the acceptance of the grace. 

But we must distinguish. 

I. It is not ours to icork, i. e.^ to make, create, 
procure our salvation. There is no salvation unless 
it is free — " without money," " without price/"' with- 
out our working for it. That would be no gospel, 
but a mockery — a hopeless impossibility ! Salvation 
begins in our taking the free salvation offered in the 
gospel ; in taking Christ, who came into the world 
to save the helpless, hopeless sinner ! " Tord, I 
am Thine ! By Thine own act of redemption in 
Christ ! I take Thee as my Saviour, and now 
stand in Thy righteousness and power, not my 
own: I am Tliine!'' 



:226 



SERMONS. 



Faith appropriates Him. With the heart man 
telieveth unto righteousness." And beloved there 
is no Hfe, no beginning, no hope, no place to stand 
on, but this grace of God, this God-thought, God- 
word, God-work of redeeming love, which precedes 
all that we can think or say or do. Nothing but 
the merits and the work and love of Christ, and 
the Father's adoption of the sinner in Him ! We 
have just to give up ! to knock under, (if I may use 
the expression,) and as poor, helpless, guilty sin- 
ners, that can bring no ransom, and work out no 
•cancelling and supererogatory merit, to receive 
God's pardon and acceptance in Christ and say, 
Lord, I am Thine!" 

Birth before growth, life before work, pardon 
before payment, acceptance before merit, adoption 
before meetness. That is God's zvay ! There is no 
grace without it ! Salvation of the guilty sinner 
can only be of grace. Accepting that grace makes 
us God's ! 

I cannot delay to argue that point to-day. The 
•denial of it is the denial of God's truth all through, 
that unbelief which at last is the only damning " 
and damnable " sin, for it keeps us from Christ who 
alone can save from sin, its guilt and power, and 
His blood which cleanseth from all sin !" 

No salvation out of CIi7ist I No salvation possible ! 



god's saving and ours. 227^ 



Sin unpardoned, guilt unforgiven, without faith in 
Christ, without the abjuring of all hope in self, and 
resti7ig for all and resting only on Clvist ! Oh I 
the fearful perversion of the human mind, not to 
see the freeness of God's salvation, not to learn 
that there is but one way for the sinner to come — 

• " Just as I am," without one plea. 
But that Thy blood was shed for me. 
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee 1 

Those miserable excuses I am not good 
enough." Did Christ come into the world to save 
the good or to save sinners ? "I must first be 
strong enough before I can commit myself to 
Christ l" And can there be strength before you have 
Christ, to grow strong in Him ? " Finalh'. my 
brethren," writes the Apostle. *' be strong in the 
Lord and in the power of His might 1" Can you do 
that, have that, unless you first are the Lord's ? 
give yourselves to Him as sinners in all your weak- 
ness ? What saith the same apostle? "When I 
am weak then I am strong — strong in the Lord."" 
Every doubt solved ?" Who can do that but Christ? 
And He will not solve any doubts which do not 
touch the real point. How ridiculous to speculate 
about doctrinal propositions and dogmatic s\'stems. 
and forget your soul's immediate wants : EternaL 



• 

228 



SERMONS. 



life, man's sin, God's holiness and mercy, and the 
counsel of grace that alone harmonizes all ? Christ 
received in your heart as your Saviour and your 
King ? — 

And, brethren, are not most doubts of a vioral 
nature ? I mean, arising from moral difficulties in 
your way, and perhaps immoral tendencies and 
practices begotten in the love of the world, its 
fashions and sins, that your conscience tells you are 
so hard to harmonize, impossible to harmonize with 
God's law ''vv^ithout holiness no one shall see the 
Lord I" That holiness can be obtained only in 
Christ and by giving up all else. 

But again, and oh, the many who come to us 
with that trouble— ' my Christianity is so imper- 
fect." Why of course it is — and I know it to be 
much worse than you think it — I know it by my 
own experience. But your Cliristianity ? is that to 
save you ? your poor, miserable, inconsistent^ 
w^orldly Christianity? the consciousness of which 
should indeed make you penitent ? But is that to 
keep you from Christ ? Who, zi^liat saves you ? 
your own Christianity or Clirist? The poorer 
your Christianity, the more you need Christ — and, 
as if you had never known Him before, you should 
now go to Him and count all your past but loss, 
and lay hold of Him now as your only salvation ! 



god's saving and OCRS, 



229 



Do not deceive yourselves 1 If you want to be a 
better Christian go at once to Christ. Plant }'our- 
self upon His merits — plead His love and the 
Father's love, who is no hard blaster, and say, 

Lord, whatever the past has been ( ah, it has taught 
me my weakness and the strength of sin upon mej 
Lord Jesus, j'tY / ^z;/^ Tliinc ; save vie 

Just let me illustrate this mistake by one of its 
highest but worst forms. I have seen more than 
one, who came to me with the pitiful, tearful, maud- 
hn, half-crazed confession that they had committed 

ilie iDipardojiable si/ij' Oh, in my heart of hearts 
I pity those deluded and profane souls. I know it 
is often physical causes that lead to such thoughts; 
but the spiritual element is nothing but pi'ide and 
self-rig]iteous)isss Theje is no piety, no humilit}' 
and no faith, in the boast of the "unpardonable 
sin." No past sin has ever kept a soul out of 
heaven, that would go to Jesus. It is Self, and the 
pride of self, that makes people value themselves 
and their feelings and experience so much that they 
say, "I am too much for Christ;" I have sinned 
away my day of grace, and therefore cannot, need 
not seek and sue for what He cannot and will not 
give. He cannot? He the Almight}' God and 
Saviour? He icUl not? He the all-loving Jesus, 
the lover of our souls? x\nd thus you charge upon 
20 



230 



SERMONS. 



Christ the loss of your soul! His inability or un~ 
willingness to save you, not upon yourself: Vo?i 
willing, anxious, m agony crying to be saved; and 
no help, no willingness, no power in Christ? Just 
think of it; what blasphemy! It is perfectly fearful 
how people can wrest the Scriptures to their own 
destruction. What has your past and your own 
miserable Christianity to do with your salvation? 
Count it all loss and come to Christ, who has said, 
"Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
out." Oh, fo?/ are too great a sinner even for Christ. 
Glorious pre-eminence among the poor herd of 
sinners whom Christ came to save. He and His 
sacrifice are not enough for you. You are a special 
sinner ? No; you are just one like all others, that 
must come as a poor beggar and no more. God is 
no respecter of persons. What saved the Magdalen, 
what regenerated the publican is all you have to 
look to; there is nothing more powerful that is 
promised or possible. If the Gospel is good enough 
for any, it is good enough for you. Why, such 
people seem to glory in their especial sinfulness, 
and want God to do something ''extra" for them; 
just as others plead their great intellect and philos- 
ophy and wisdom, to demand m^ore evidences than 
the Scriptures give, and stronger motives than 
Christ's life and death and love. Whosoever it be, 



god's saving and ours. 



231 



and whatsoever it be, just put away that Self^ that I, 
which is constantly in your way. Kill it and put 
Christ in its stead] learn to look away from self; 
count your own peculiarities, preferences, excellen- 
cies, position, difficulties, etc., but loss, that you 
may find all in Christ, and from to-day trust Him, 
follow Him, serve Him, make Him your all. 

And be it so, that till this hour 

We never knew what faith has meant, 

Deceived by sin and Satan's power, 
Have never felt these hearts relent. 

What shall v.-e do ? Shall we lie down, 
Sink in despair and groan and'die, 

And rest beneath the Almighty's frown, 
Nor glance one cheerful hope on high ? 

Forbid it Saviour! To Thy grace 
As sinners, strangers, now we come, 

Among Thy saints we ask a place, 
For in Thy mercy there is room. 

So trust Him! and He is yours, diXid yoii are His, 
Peace and strength will follow, the clouded mind be 
cleared, the foul heart cleansed. Humble your- 
selves; forget self; let Christ be all in all! and the 
battle is won, and you will know what powder there 
is in the prayer ''Lord I am Thine, save me;" and 
understand the declaration of the Gospel, ''it is the 
power of God unto salvation to all that believe.'^ 



232 



SERMONS. 



IL But this is only No. i of my text's lesson, free 
salvation. I must take up No. 2, Work out, {not 
work, nor zvork for ; all that is Christ's;) work out 
tliat free salvation, 

Man, the free agent, cannot be saved as a ma- 
chine. He is honored to be God's co-worker, as in 
every purpose of life, so also in the work of salva- 
tion. All is freely given; but meetness must come, 
life must grow, acceptance be testified to, adoption 
be adopted in our oivn life and heart. 

And brethren, if religion is worth anything, worth 
having at all, such must be its law. 

Life ! It is a passage from time to eternity. Like 
a ship bound to a foreign port, the ark of our life is 
bound for eternity, and that eternity has its two 
ports of entry and its two masters that own it. It 
steers for heaven or for hell, and it must show its 
papers of entry. It belongs to God or to the world, 
and must display the ensign ''Lord I am Thine." 
Christians nail that flag to the mast, and follow the 
chart to the land of Holiness ! or where will you drift? 

Life is like a march of the army of God's crea- 
tures to the goal of heaven or hell ; you must enlist 
in one body or the other. Hoist the colours of your 
Master Christ, and stand to your colours, or whose 
will you be? 

Is not this the true point of the question? What 



god's saving and ours. 



233 



is religion, what is Christianity, what is the Church 
of Christ, what the services and the ministry worth, 
if they do not settle the issues of eternity, if they 
do not show in the life and conduct of Christians 
where they are from and whither they are going ? 

Is a mere half-way sort of religion worth living 
for, and w^orth the sacrifice of this world's idols ? 
Is Christ's religion a mere ornament to be worn in 
the sight of an admiring or sneering world? A 
''dummy" to keep us respectable amidst the follies 
and excesses of the world? A morality without a 
divine regenerating principle, ministering to self 
and self-advancement and pride? A mere viaticum 
at the hour of death ? Who can believe that? 

Is it not the very soul-renewal from sin to holi- 
ness, the very rescue from sin to God? the absolute 
change and turn to renew, regenerate, re-fashion a 
man's inner and outer life, and make him fit for 
eternity and the Kingdom of God? to raise him to 
a new and higher sphere, and develop every latent 
power in him for what is godly, righteous, holy, 
true, honest and pure, and fit him for life here and 
for life eternal ? If not, I say it in all reverence, it 
is not worth Iiavhig^ not worth living for, sacrificing 
for! Nothing at all ! Worse than nothing, an im=- 
possibility. And those who think they can take it 
as a mere name to live and unite with it the love of 



234 



SERMONS. 



the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the fleshy 
and the pride of life ; who can carry on both ^houK 
ders and now serve one and then the other, be loyal 
to both and the friends of both (ah ! brethren, is 7iot 
tJiat the precious so-called Cliristiaiiity of t]io7isands 
they deceive themselves wofully, and have not got- 
ten the first entrance into the narrow way that lead- 
eth to life — 7iot the first! ''For w^hat fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness ?" and 
'' what agreement hath the temple of God with 
idols?" for yc^ Christians^ are the temple of the liv- 
ing God f 

Ah ! Is there no work for the Christian ? for 
him that has fled to Christ and saith I am 
Thine?" Xo need for the cry ''Lord "^ave rrie ?" 
and as a moral agent, to set to work and make his 
calling and election S7(re, zvorking out his ozvn sal- 
vation ? Aye, working out, developing in his life,, 
verifying, cultivating, nursing, warking, harvestings 
bringing out in his ever}' thought and word and 
deed the great truth, " Lord, I am thine !" Thine / 
and therefore I, my heart, my will, my life, my 
time, m}^ talent, my all I have and am — Thine ! 

Take that ship in which he is embarked ! To 
reach the port must not every means be used-?' 
rudder, chart, compass, engine, speed — on, on, onT 
till the port is reached ? 



god's saving and ours. 



235 



That march through a hostile world — does it not 
require circumspection, watchfulness, girding on 
the armour of righteousness to the right hand and 
to the left ; armed cap-a-pie ! and using that armour 
bravely, perseveringly, faithfully ? 

That life-work wherever it is cast, vmst it not be 
done? Is the way to heaven smoother in its work- 
ing, up to it, than the pitiful ways to earthly gains 
and accomplishments? — 

Aye, I am not afraid now to add the sequel to 
my text, ''work out your own salvation zuitli fear 
a?id trembling!' 

Powerful foes are abroad; within, without. Is it 
hard? All life, all labour is hard; nothing worth 
running for without sacrifice; nothing ours without 
the sweat of the brow. 

Hard? No ; for ''it is God that worketh in us to 
will and to do!" It is still of grace. 

As earthly me^ns and instrumentalities and the 
wisdom of men guide us to success in the enter- 
prizes of this life, so Gods Holy Spirit is the power 
divine, to guide our souls unto salvation. And it 
is only a law of our nature that God ordains, when 
He saith to those upon whom He bestows His free 
salvation, " work it out." Work it out with fear and 
trembling, do it boldly, resolutely, whatever it may 
cost; hopefully and perseveringly, for "it is I who 



236 



SERMONS. 



am working in you." Do you see the point of the 
Psalmist's cry, Lord I am Thine, save me." God 
saves us even in this. 

Wherefore ''come out from among them," He 
saith. This is our part. Not come out from the 
circle of friends and brethren and neighbors, who 
shall teach you the lessons of love and human sym- 
pathy; ''and be ye separate," not in monkish retire- 
ment and priestly dress, but separate from the ways 
and fashions out from the sins of the world. Show 
whose you are. It is not in phylacteries and the 
cut of the dr^ss; not in badges, ritual and profes- 
sion. It is in a purer life, a holier zeal, a more faith- 
ful obedience. It is in the inner depths of the heart, 
its desires and thoughts; in the heavenly conversa- 
tion on earth and the loftier aims of the works. A 
higher righteousness, a nobler life, a deeper love, 
all for Christ and all in and by Him! Nothing im- 
pure and unholy to touch him; r^othing selfish and 
low to drag him down; a heart to go out to all in 
love and sympathy and active benevolence as 
Christ's; a soul living in the presence of God and 
for His glory. 

Here are your tests, and here your growth in 
Christ. And that Christianity of yours which is 
worthless as your justification, is trained into the 
most beautiful thing in all God's creation; holiness- 



god's saving and ours. 



237 



in tlioiiglit ajid life, the express image of Christ 
Himself. 

There are only two lives, the godly and the 
worldly; one only can we live, for no man can 
serve two masters. Hoist your flag and stand by it, 
and salvation shall be perfected in your training and 
discipline on earth. ''With the heart man believeth 
unto righteousness, and with the mouth," with the 
evidences of our life, the visible w^itnesses of 
the outward life to the spiritual grace, even that 
faith within, '' confession is made unto salva- 
tion." 

Christianity begins in a revolution : the renounc- 
ing the bondage and breaking up the allegiance to 
the w^orld, the flesh and the devil. But it trains 
into a liabit, the perfect freedom of God's service. 

*' Lord I am Thine," the beginning. 

'* Lord save me," the continuing in the working 
out of w^hat w^e have received, until the blessed end ! 

Its end: in the perfection and the glory of the 
world above ! and all is of God I — all of God I 

My bark is wafted to the strand 

By breath divine ; 
And on the helm there rests a hand 

Other than mine. 



One who has known in storms to sail, 
I have on board ; 



238 



SERMONS. 



Above the raving of the gale 
I hear my Lord. 

% % ^ 

Safe to the land ! — safe to the land ! 

The end is this : 
And then — vi^ith Him, go hand in hand, 

*'Far into bliss ! " 



OBEDIEN'CE. 



Whatsoever He saitJi unto you, do it. 
jNo. ii. 5. 

If I were asked to condense all practical teaching 
of the Scripture into one sentence, I would quote 
this text. For in one sense it is true : obedience, 
aye, obedience is the first and greatest lesson we 
draw from its revelation of the Saviour's relation to 
us and ours to Him, the pivot on which its every 
issue turns, the end towards which every result 
must lead. 

Ohedicnee — you ask ? Is obedience to save us ? 
does not all the Gospel preach faitJi as the means 
of acceptance and salvation ? 

Surely, my brethren, our obedience is never suffi- 
cient to work out our justification before God — 
*^ Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 
every one that believeth." But it is not a dead 
faith, it is not a mere creed ; nor is it mere devo- 
tion ! It may come to us traditionally — and thank 
God (generally and in His economv of the Church, 
it so comes to us, as we hear it at our mother's 
knees, and receive the promise of God's adoption 
in the baptismal covenant. But it must grow and 
become our own. And the knowledge of our own 



240 



SERMONS. 



sinfulness and eternal soul-\vants, must lead us per- 
sonally to surrender to Him, and trust ourselves to 
His atoning power. It is the same faith, but the 
child is becoming a man. As we advance in life 
and experience, we learn Avhat that means : He 
came to save His people from their sins !'' not only 
their guilt but their power I And by faith in Him, 
the living, working, struggling, sanctifying faith, 
we rise to the knowledge of His saving power, and 
prove it in the obedienee of the faith, prove it b}^ de- 
veloping from it as the root that holy life without 
which we are none of His. 

When the Apostle at the close of his life could 
say, I have kept the faith," he meant, indeed, the 
faith involved in the first revelation of Christ to his 
soul as the alone Saviour; but as learned, practi- 
cally, and exercised in a life in which he lived to 
Him that saved him, and followed His sinless, holy 
example, ever reaching forth for greater growth of 
His faith, more enlargement, grasp and power ; 
more comprehension of it, by pressing towards the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus, 

Why, the true object of Christ's coming and dyings 
for us was not to save us ui our sins but from our 
sins ; was and is, to lead us back to that obedience, 
and make it the habit and the joy and glory of our 



OBEDIENCE. 



241 



hearts and lives, without which no creature can hve 
in God's world. 

Obedience is the law of creation. It cannot be 
otherwise. If we live in a world of order, law, 
government, we must be in accord, in harmony 
with it ; violation of its order, law and government 
is death, ruin, misery, exile I — Just think of inani- 
mate nature. Let the sun, let the stars forsake 
their orbits — what follows, or would follow were 
that possible ? Let the flower be deprived of the 
legitimate sources of its support and well-being, 
sunshine and dew, and it dies ! — Let the animal be 
misled against its true instinct, it suffers and dies I 
And the moral creature, the free agent ? Aye, he can 
disobey, but can he disobey without suffering, 
without '^sin finding him out?" ]\Ian can choose, 
but he chooses wrong at his peril, and his only law 
of normal existence and possible happiness is obedi- 
ence. He has fallen, hence his suffering and death ; 
recovery made possible only by the Redeemer's 
merits and the sinner's faith in that Redeemer's 
work. Recovery remains an impossibility without 
the return to obedience. 

Whatever people may say there are but two lines 
of conduct, but two roads of life. 3rlan has the 
power to choose; but, with the road chosen, he must 
take the end to which each leads. He has no 
21 



242 



SERMONS. 



choice there; and the end of happiness, blessed- 
ness, eternal hfe is only in the road of right, truth 
and godliness. 

The end corresponds with the road. Which is 
the right one? Which must we choose to be saved? 
Philosophers may twist and turn and try to avoid 
the issue, or deny our premises and conclusions as 
not scientifically demonstrable. But after all, there 
sleeps in every heart, there lives in every breast, the 
conviction and the knowledge that God presides 
over this world and over his own life and choice, 
and that only, what He saith, what God and Christ 
say, is the right, the only road which leadeth unto 
life. I need say no more. If men are ostentatiously 
loud in proclaiming ''the reign of physical law/' 
and lay down obedience to that law as undeniable 
and imperative, they will not lower themselves by 
denying their higher nature and God's spiritual law, 
and refuse to obey that. 

Whatever He saith, therefore, is our rule of life. 
And oh, He has said it so plainly in all His revela- 
tion of nature, in the invisible witness of our own 
hearts by the voice of conscience, and in the solemn 
and authentic revelation of His Holy Word. 

The whole world is divided into but two classes. 
Those who obey that Rule or Law or Word, and 
those who do not. 



OBEDIENCE. 



Let us take the two classes: 

There is one road, and over it is written ''I came 
to do Thy will oh God, the will of My Father which 
is in Heaven." We might take the life of Enoch, 
of Noah, of Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, Apos- 
tles, ]\Iartyrs, of every Christian man and woman 
that lives, has lived and shall live in this world, but 
none are perfect. And we turn to the great exam- 
ple and forerunner of all righteousness, Jesus Christ, 
who came to earth as inaii^ to show us how to obey 
the law of God and walk in the narrow path that 
leadeth unto life ; not as God, but as man ; not with 
divine power, but the power of pure, unsullied man- 
hood; tlie true Son of Man, In His life we see our 
own. As He walked its rough and thorny road and 
toiled up its steep heights ''holy, harmless, unde- 
iiled, and separate from sinners," but from that 
holy life on earth walked straight into heaven : so 
it is with all His followers ; who after many a con- 
flict and self-denial, and much crucifixion of the 
flesh, yet with many comforts and helps and prom- 
ises, copy His bright example here and follow Him 
to the life of glory and bliss above. 

There is the other road — and over it is written 
who is the Lord that I should obey His voice ?" 
I might speak of Adam and Eve in their fatal choice, 
of Cain, and a thousand others; but Pharaoh is a 



244 



SERMONS. 



fair type, and his defiant cry the war-cry of those 
who walk in the broad road which leadeth to de- 
struction. 

You say, that is a hard saying, and that you do 
not accept his position. Does not every sinner do 
so? every one that rejects Christ? every one who 
neglects so great salvation ? 

Just think a moment. I know, few would use 
the words of Pharaoh, but — act like him ? My dear 
brethren, I have known more than one who flatly 
refused to be Christians ; who almost took offense 
at being approached on the subject, and at last 
closed the interview with an oath, d — it ! I 
don't mean to be a Christian 1" I do not make an 
exaggerated statement, but I know it will grate 
fearfully on many a mind. 

Well, if after all the lessons taught you, all the 
heart-burnings you have experienced, all the mo- 
ments of hope and a better life you have had, all the 
urgent appeals, you just turn away : do you not say 

''Noji^oi^tr' 

There comes the call. Oh I in such love and ten- 
derness and anxiety for your souls, and your hap- 
piness here and hereafter, and every comfort and 
blessing of earth and heaven — Xo ! 

There comes a temptation ; }'ou know it is wrong, 
sinful, deadly. Conscience speaks, all you ever 



OBEDIENCE. 



245 



learned comes back to your mind to warn you ; 
examples of perishing sinners lift their pleading 
voices; God seems to be all but present and look 
into your very soul ; Christ stands and pleads and 
points to His crown of thorns and cross of atone- 
ment : No/ 

Your old habits rule you. Xo^ I cannot give 
them up, and you let go Christ 1 the idols of your 
life, pleasure, honour, riches. — Xo, I must worship 
them, and let go Christ! 

Where is the difference ? In the end, is there so 
much difference between Pilate saying " I see no 
fault in Him," yet deHvering Him to His murder- 
ous enemies, or the Jews who crucified Him? be- 
tween Ananias who lied to the Holy Ghost, and the 
young ruler who went away sorrowful, because he 
could not sacrifice his love of money for the salva- 
tion of his soul in the service of God and holiness? 

Does not all turn on practical faith, life, obedi- 
ence ? aye, my brethren, the giving of the heart, 
which involves all life ? 



Two more remarks on the obedience we are 
speaking of : 

I. It must be instant ] delay is disobedience, and 
generally fatal disobedience ! 

All life teaches the sin and folly of procrastina- 



246 



SERMONS. 



tion ! Let me give you an illustration from my 
own knowledge and recent experience. 

A woman living in the country was taken desper- 
ately ill; the docter lived some miles off; she had 
had similar attacks before. Her only son was dis- 
patched for the doctor. He thought, no doubt, it 
was one of her old attacks ; he went off on his horse, 
rode at his ease, stopped at a neighbour's and paid 
a visit, and at last, leisurely reached the physician's 
home. I don't know if the doctor was in a greater 
hurry. Both came to the residence of the w^oman — - 
slie zuas dead^ 

Let me give you another illustration : A man is 
involved in debt, (how many have realized that con- 
dition!) It may be an individual, or a company, or 
a whole people ; it does not change the issue or the 
principle. Let it be a man. Well ! he may say, it 
is hard, hard; I don't see how I can manage it and 
save, even by close living and many self-denials and 
privations, enough to pay it; but it is an honest 
debt, a binding obligation. My debtors would suf- 
fer less by my dishonesty than I would do in my 
own conscience and sense of right before God 
and man ! Of course it would be better, more 
pleasant, to do it right off; but if that is impossible, 
the instant obedience requires instant retrenchment^ 
instant self-denial, instant endeavor to turn all into 



OBEDIENCE. 



24/ 



that channel. I have known a family that were un- 
fortunate and failed. They set to work at once, and 
manfully, and I may say in a godly way; they lived 
on ^50 a month (it was a large family) till they 
were clear. The children are living now, and God 
is prospering them in the world. That was instant 
obedience ! 

But there are others. What? to give up the life 
they are living and their position, and the things 
they are used to ? it would be preposterous ! And 
instead of trying how to pay their debts, year after 
year they use every ingenuity and every evasive 
plea and every plausible pretext to try, hoiu not to 
pay their debt. Well, you may call it by a great 
many names, but in the sight of God and His law, 
it certainly is disobedience ! God have mercy upon 
them ! 

And brethren, so it is in all things. These are 
mere illustrations. Any parleying with sin, any 
giving in, any postponing, is just that disobedience 
of which we are speaking now. Oh ! I am going 
to be a Christian?" Are yon? I don't believe you; 
and you cannot believe it if you do not set to work 
about it at once, and be one, and as a poor sinner 
come to Christ and renounce your sins. 

A dear and noble Christian friend sat by my fire- 
side, a fugitive during the war. With all his trials 



248 



SERMONS. 



he felt God's mercies gratefully; he turned to me 
and said, ''yes I am resolved if God helps me through 
this, I am going to be a better man and serve Him 
more faithfully." I said, ''why wait? why not do it 
right off?" He blushed, and said "Amen." 

As long as you say / am going to be^ there is no 
hope. You but make Christ the minister of sin, 
and fool your own self Why, what keeps you? 
Are you honest in it ? Can you plead the farm you 
have bought, the yoke of oxen you have not proved, 
the wife you have married ? Ah ! should not every 
claim of earth Jead us nearer to God, and every ten- 
der tie of love lead us to bring with us to Christ the 
souls which He has given us ? 

I cannot dwell on the many miserable pleas made 
to excuse men's present disobedience. People can't 
believe the Bible, when they don't study it. Christ 
is such a hard blaster ? when He says my yoke is 
easy and m.y burden is light. Such a struggle I as if 
it were harder than the stru£^o:le of sin I — I am not 
prepared? when all that is needed is to go to Him. 
I am not good enough? when Christ cam.e to 
save sinners, not the righteous. Shaw I What was 
the course St. Paul pursued ? " Lord, zuJiat zvilt 
TlioiL have vie to do .^" Can any reasonable, honour- 
able soul excuse itself from that course ? How 
was it with the Apostles ? " Follow me," and thej^ 



OBEDIEN'CE. 



249 



forsook all and followed Him. And whatever form 
it may assume, that is the only answer : Ltstant 
obedience ! 

Why, brethren, j ust take the question of right / Is 
it right? is it not sin to put it off, when we acknowl- 
edge the binding force of our obedience, and rob 
God of that much of our time and service ? Yes, 
and take the question of safety f Putting off? for 
luhat — in comparison with what you refuse now ? 
Till zuhen ? putting off — and with it }'ou put off 
your chance, your time, your eternity ! " Thou 
fo jl, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 

There was wonderful tact and insight into human 
nature in Dr. Chalmers' treatment of that young girl 
whose mother had complained to him that she could 
not persuade her child to be a Christian ; that she 
had talked to her and talked, but it was of no use. 
He proposed that he should see her by herself 
They are bothering you a great deal with this 
question," he kindly said to her, '' suppose I tell your 
mother you don't want to be talked to any more for 
a year — how will that do ?" The girl stared at him 
with her large eyes in perfect wonder, and new 
thoughts seemed to come to her; she cast down 
her eyes and said tremblingly, she didn't think it 
would be safe to wait for a year, something might 
happen, she might die before that. " Well, that's 



250 



SERMONS. 



SO," replied the Doctor, ''suppose we say six 
months." She didn't think that would be safe. 
''That's so, let us cut it down to three months." 
The girl looked down. "I don't think it would 
be safe to put it off three months: Doctor, I 
don't think it would be safe to put it off at all." 
And down they went on their knees, and it was 
settled. 

There is no other way, my brethren; now is the 
accepted time, this is the day of salvation. 

2. But, secondly, obedience clieerfiil, ivilling. 
There is no godly, no acceptable obedience without 
it. Suppose a man obeys from fear, from dread of 
punishment and hell-fire, does that change him? 
Change his mind, change his heart? i\Iake holi- 
ness lovelv and dear to him? Can anv forced obe- 
dience live in heaven or be safe here ? Will it not 
break down, will not the natural heart break 
through ? The apostle says "the law was not made 
for a rio-hteous man, but for the unric^hteous." 
Why? Because the righteous is in harmony with 
the law, obeys it spontaneously and does not feel 
its restraints. As long as a man loves sin, he will 
find the service of God as a man finds the temper- 
ance pledge while the love of liquor is in him. It 
may restrain him for awhile, in the sight of others; 
he will be sure to give way to such temptations as 



OBEDIENXE. 



251 



overrule his fears, and never be genial and happy 
in his constrained position. Walk in the spirit 
and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," is the 
Scripture-panacea. Xo, brethren, we cannot give 
it to ourselves, but God can give it to us — a love 
for Him and His holy ways — this conquers the 
heart, and with it, the man. 

Oh 1 the burdened life, the struggles of the man 
that attempts to be merely vioral, and neglects and 
refuses the spiritual power of Christ's Spirit, which 
alone gives freedom I and never rises to the liberty 
of the children of God, who, because children, count 
it their glory and privilege to live as such and be 
followers of God I Here is the point, and the only 
solution : We must have the heart for it, out of 
which are the issues of life. The heart, given to 
God ; the heart, loving Christ : it must learn the 
lesson of purity and holiness and honesty and jus- 
tice and truth. — Mere reformation is a legal bur- 
den and an all but certain failure I Regenei^ation^ 
the birth of the soul into a higher and better and 
purer and heavenly life, carries with it the victory 
over sin, and the obedience of the faith. 

It may be feeble, it may often be surprised, there 
may be states of lukewarmness, and sorrow over 
the momentary triumph of the adversary and our 
old nature. But hold on! keep on I press on! and 



252 



SERMONS. 



the victory is certain. God and Chdst are pledged 
for it! 

Do ity do it at once, for ye know not what the 
morrow may bring forth. 

Do it, as the craving of your better self, the liv- 
ing power of God in your soul. 

Do it, in all things — Whatsoever ye do, do all. 
to the glory of God ! " Do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ ! " 




TWO MASTERS. 



25 S 



No man can serve two Masters, 
Mat. vi. 24. 

But why serve at all ? and any body ? Are we not 
free? — It is very certain we are free agents, i, e.^ free 
to choose — but to choose what? To state it most 
generally, and without begging the question in be- 
half of my gospel, certainly between Right and 
Wrong : here is our responsibility and the price 
we have to pay for our freedom ! 

The first question then must be : what is right 
and what is wrong? 

Wrong, logically stated, is not right;" and this 
may be two-fold. Negative — failing to come up to 
what is right ; positive — violating, transgressing, 
contradicting what is right. 

The question resolves itself into what is Right ? " 
There must be a standard, and a perfect standard. 
Where is that absolute and perfect standard of 
Right? 

1st. Is it a man's own opinion and notions? But 
they are various. The result of such a standard 
would disintegrate all moral life of humanity. On 
the plea of their own ideas of right and wrong, 
men could proclaim most contradictory standards, 
22 



254 



SERMONS. 



raised on their personal prejudices and views; and" 
anarchy would rule. 

2nd. Is it the result of Jiuvian legislation ? But; 
is there, has there ever been, can there be a legisla- 
tion of all mankind, a universal, all-commanding 
standard? Even if admitted, can it extend to any- 
thing but the act, the outward life ? No one can 
see into another's heart. Man's law may, and must 
forbid murder; " but is not hatred in the heart its 
source and main-spring ? leading to the act, when 
opportunity is rife and temptation overpowering ? 
Human law .goes against adultery," but is it not 
true that he that looketh on a woman to lust after 
her is guilty of adultery? Can human legislation 
meet that? — Thou shalt not " steal; every human 
code of law provides against that; can it touch the 
covetous heart? the lying pretexts, the overreach- 
ing bargain ? 

So we go farther : 3rd. TJic inborn sense of 
Right ! That indeed is a step forward, and leads to 
a higher view of man's nature, and a higher guide. 
All therefore admit the power and rule of conseienee. 
But that does not, by itself, touch the standard of 
Right. Conscience is the authoritative and irre- 
pressible arbiter within us ; the voice of God, if }^ou 
please, to approve or reprove what we do in agree- 
ment w^ith or contradiction to what z'ce think is right. 



TWO MASTERS. 



255 



It is not the jtidgc of zuhat is right or zurong in it- 
self. Countless are the cases in which men did 
what they held to be right, yet what was essentially 
wrong. On that ground the excesses and atrocities 
of all fanaticism could be justified. Conscience 
must be educated and informed by a standard, a per- 
fect and absolute standard of Right; and every holder 
of that conscience is responsUile for every means to at- 
tain to that information. 

And thus there is admitted, beyond conscience 
and beside it, lying back of it, an innate se7ise of 
Right and Wrong as belonging to man and fixing 
the standard. If there is this ''moral sense" breth- 
ren, then it is given by Him who made him ; given, 
say, in the constitution which makes him a man, 
more so than reason given him above the instincts 
of brute creation. 

But even this is not sufficient, (i.) There is 
against it the fact, the well-known fact, that this 
sense is not universally realized. And (2), all hu- 
man experience — on the broad field of common hu- 
manity, as in the secret consciousness of the indi- 
vidual heart — proves that under the influence of 
habit, self-indulgence and sin, this standard loses 
its force, becomes biassed, dimmed, lowered, and is 
at last discarded, just as conscience can be '' seared." 
All moral standards degenerate that are only under 



2S6 



SERMONS. 



the control of man. And again, and more (3), even 
if not obliterated, coming only from man, it lacks 
that authority which alone could make it absolutely, 
universally and forever, the rule for each and all. 

No, zve must look for tJie true staiidard of Right 
to Him zvho created man. In man's creation the 
supreme and necessary authority and standard is 
given. 

That creation involves the existence, power and 
personality of God we do not argue now. Intel- 
lectual processes cannot prov^ it. The attacks on 
that ground by scientists are absurd. The Bible 
never claims that man could see God, and prove 
His existence and character by the evidence of the 
senses and natural proofs. But no philosophy has 
ever yet reasoned God out of man's heart and con- 
science, and never will, and with it His authority. 
The heart knows titer e is a God ; and no sophism 
will succeed to abolish this evidence of conscious- 
ness, even after years of blating infidelity and defi- 
ant practical atheism. But if God made the world, 
the world is ruled by Him; not only physically, but 
morally. If we are His creatures, it follows that 
we must live under His law, and are responsible for 
obeying Him; and that that only is right which is 
in accordance with His will and His reign of physi- 
cal and moral and spiritual Law ! 



TWO MASTERS. 



I. Here then is a Master ; and we must serve 
Him, or we fail in our very character as His crea- 
tures. Disobedience is ruin ! Our naturalists are 
ready enough to hold up the madness of going 
against "the Reign of Law." Yes, but the reign of 
His moral lazu, given to moral beings, free agents, 
is infinitely greater and holier ! This free choice 
lifts us to the highest rank of created beings, but it 
becomes fatal when abused. It needs no vindictive- 
ness on the part of God to consign the disobedient 
to exile and misery. Death, whatever that be, de- 
struction, must be the alternative of disobedience, 
God must rule, or the world falls to pieces. " I am 
the Lord Thy God, thou shalt have none other 
Gods but Me." 

Here then is one service; God's truth, justice,, 
holiness are, and must be, the conditions of life. 

But brethren, falling short of it, violating His 
laws, fis not that the confession of mankind ?) How 
do we stand in His service and towards this Crea- 
tor and Law^giver, who, by absolute necessity, must 
be our judge ? — The love and mercy of God comes 
in here as a fact of revelation to complete the idea 
of God, our knowledge of Him; and the Master we 
serve, the God we must love and obey, is the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The son of God took 
upon Himself our sin and guilt, and made the re- 



258 



SERMONS 



conciliation, that God ''might be just, and yet the 
justifier of him that beheveth in Jesus." The atone- 
ment ("'at-one-ment" ), to bring together what sin- 
had severed — punish sin and save the sinner 1 

This God is our ^Master, and Him we must serve! 

Serve? Yes, but this service is perfect freedom. 

Let us understand this. Free agency is not free- 
dom in the sense of absolute independence. As 
creatures we stand in a necessary relation to the Cre- 
ator. As social beings we stand in as necessary a 
relation to our fellow creatures, And our freedom 
or libert}-, large as it is in the aspirations and claims 
of the free agent, is limited by these two relations. 
Xeither the dependence on the Creator, nor the 
state of co-existence with equals, allows of a free- 
dom which would be anarch}' and licentiousness. 
We may elect our course of action : but we must 
take its issues, and suffer if we make a wrong choice ; 
suffer, because in our choice we either do right or 
do wrong. And " whatsoever a man soweth that 
must he reap," in strict accordance with the limita- 
tion by which his freedom is bounded in his posi- 
tion towards God and towards man. 

Xow, God's service is perfect freedom. 

What constitutes freedom ? Equality before the 
law ; equal rights and privileges. 

In God's service both are guarded : 



TWO MASTERS. 



259 



1. ''God is no respecter of persons." 

2. *'A11 ye are brethren," which involves the recog- 
nition of the mutual obligations between man and 
man, and in its highest sense prescribes the law of 
human life. Negatively — " Do that to no man 
which thou hatest." Positively — " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do unto you, do ye even so 
to them." 

Ah! brethren, more; that service is not only free 
b2it blessed. Blessed to us sinners, who accept, be- 
lieve, serve their [Master; for guilt is forgiven, and 
power given to return ; no longer servants, but 
friends, children ! 

And such a Master ! Can we deny Him? 

II. But there is another Master that claims us, 
and carries thousands and tens of thousands in his 
bondage. Our Lord in the context saith ; "ye can- 
not serve God and mammon;" that is to say, ye 
cannot serve God, and not God," whatever that 
or he be. Mammon has been represented in man}^ 
religious books as a Syrian deity opposed here to 
the true God. Such is not exactly the case, cer- 
tainly not relevant. Wealth, riches, the world are 
personified by our Lord in the word mammon." 
It is a mere representative of all that may draw the 
soul away from God. I know, that few things do 
so more than money if it is loved; but everything 



26o 



SERMONS. 



that is loved supremely, draws the soul away from 
God and becomes its destroyer. — 

Xow brethren, we have spoken of our relation to 
God and the service we owe Him. Surely it is a 
reasonable and just service, and one which must 
lead to happiness here and blessedness everlasting. 

What is the service of mammon, earth, sin, self, 
the devil? Whilst the one is freedom, raising the 
soul to its highest goal and fulfilling its true destiny, 
the service of all else can onlv be slaverv, bondas^e. 

The service of sin 1 I do not know of anything 
more enslaving, more degrading I God knows I 
knovv' enough of sin to feel for sinners, but it is just 
on that account I can speak, and must speak so 
positively. 

It is downright slavery. The man cries lib- 
ertv," and does the verv tiling he has fought a&ainst 
and disapproves of, and knows will ruin him in time 
and in eternity. 

A slavery which forces him to go against his 
own interest, against his conscience, against his 
fears, against his reason, against everything God 
has constituted as guardians to men's souls to keep 
them from ruin in time and in eternity. 

Xeed I give examples ? Just take the covetous, 
the ambitious, the pleasure-loving, the brutal sensu- 
alist, the drunkard. Ah, he knows he is doing wrong. 



TWO MASTERS. 



261 



ruining himself in health, reputation, everything, 
perhaps dragging down with him to misery and 
shame a lovely family. No ! no ! he will not, will 
not do it ; he will reform ! He will resist and never 
touch the cursed thing again ! He takes an oath, 
he swears to God ! — And the devil comes to him 
again and h^ seeks it yet again ! " 

He that committeth sin is the servant of sin ! 
Is it possible to deny, to disavow this ? Aye, 
though they wake up from their trance of sin ; 
though disappointment follow its every indulgence, 
and reaction be its penalty; though no prospect be- 
fore to allure, no earthly, no heavenly hope or 
promise: the sin behind them goads them on; and 
they cannot, cannot leave its service, because they 
have lost all moral freedom, have lost the power 
to resist and live as they would. 

///. No man can serve tzvo masters. 

Life too truly teaches us, there are these two mas- 
ters. Can we make a compromise and serve both ? 

No, brethren. When Christ said Ye cannot serve 
God and mammon," He did not deliver an exhorta- 
tion, but made the statement of a fact, an absolute 
fact, about which cavil or doubt is impossible. Our 
Saviour does not w^rn us against the service of 
both, does not say do not serve both, it is dan- 
gerous, it is wrong." He does not adjust the limits 



262 



SERMONS. 



within which^ the ratio in which, one can obey or 

serve the two ; He simply avers it is impossible to 
serve both; one excludes the other; no man can 
do it ! 

It is a general principle, which is true— whether 
put in connexion with the subject of religion or 
anything else. The supreme place, and this is meant 
by the termi ''serve," (see the first and great com- 
mandment, "love God with all thy heart and soul 
and mind and strength/') that surrender of our affec- 
tions and duties which involves all, cannot be di- 
vided. We cannot be the loyal and active subjects 
or citizens of two different countries or rulers. Two 
thoughts, affections, aims cannot co-exist for the 
time. Of whatsoever a man is overcome, of the 
same is he brought into bondage." This is a fearful 
Avarning ! And hence the great rule for a godly 
life Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the 
lusts of the flesh." For no man can serve two mas- 
ters. Therefore " if you are led b}" the spirit, then 
are ye the sons of God." — That service involves 
tlie zuliole man, his heart. God saith, Give me 
thine heart," and the world says ''give mie thine 
heart ; " and the poor man has but one heart to give. 

Here is the common, I migjit almost say univer- 
sal, error, (for who is wholly free from it?) that men 
think there is a neiitral ground possible, a margin 



TWO MASTERS. 



263 



allowed; that there is a Hne of conduct which em- 
braces both, in which we may partake of the ser- 
vice or the gifts of both; whilst the unalterable rule 
is ''either the one or tlie other!' If the one, the other 
is impossible; one excludes the other. ''If any man 
love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
him;" but if we are Christ's, ''we have crucified 
the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof" — 



Brethren, the text involves a great, an all-com- 
prehensive principle. Whatsoever it be that divides 
the heart and draws it away from God, His love and 
service, it is that mammon which, by this pretended 
partnership in your heart, but seeks to ruin your 
soul. You cannot serve God and mammon (what- 
ever that be in }'our case). And if this is true. I put 
it to yourselves, whether any man or woman in this 
house to-day can, in ^he sight of God, be in an 
equivocal position; can occupy a middle ground, a 
neutral position; whether there can be a state of inde- 
cision, halting, an "almost Christian" or an almost 
worldling; whether not all, if people cannot serve 
both at the same time, all here, must be either serv- 
ing the one or the other ? 

I know people do not set out to turn from God 
entirely and give themselves into the worst of all 
slaveries. No; but if you serve the world and its 



264 



SERMONS. 



lusts and aims, you actually have turned from God,, 
for you cannot serve both. 

Ah ! in our unbelief of this great truth lies the 
secret of the ruin of so many, many souls, that even 
the hopeful heart of a Christian pastor is tempted 
to give them up as beyond the possibility of reach. 
As long as the world and its fashions are the idol, 
God is unknown" and unknowable !" The god 
of this world has blinded them, they cannot see and 
believe, and the secret of the failures which so many 
Christians seem to make in their relations, lies here. 

There are thousands in our churches uncomforta- 
ble, ill at ease and dissatisfied with themselves, with- 
drawing from active church-work, they hardly know 
why; the reason is, they are trying to keep in Vv^ith 
both sides." They are endeavouring to please God 
and to please man ; to serve Christ and to serve the 
world at the same time ; to claim His promises, but 
live in sin ; to have treasures in Heaven and glut 
themselves with their treasures and pleasures on 
earth ! 

One tiling is needful. One tiling ! as o?ie Master [ 
and one service I Attend to that first ! and let God 
take care of the rest. 

Let us be decided brethren, thorough-going, un- 
compromising followers of Christ. Let our motto 
be that of St. Paul : one thing I do," to ''press to- 



TWO MASTERS. 



265 



wards the mark." Our rule,. that of Joshua: ''what- 
ever others do, however they may act, whatever ser- 
vice they may engage in, I and my house, we will 
serve the Lord !" 

For Brethren : — You cannot be the friend of the 
world and the friend of God ; you cannot serve God 
and mammon ! 

No man can serve izuo Masters, 




23 



266 



SERMONS. 



The Lo?'d is i?i His holy te^nple. 
Ps. xi. 4. — Heb, ii. 20. 

I. The Lord is ix His holy temple — tliis g/o~ 
rious I'corld^ the great temple z<:]iie]i God built Him- 
self in the unii'erse ! 

By omnipotence the material was created, by 
wisdom its foundations were laid. Beauty built its 
walls, and goodness stored it with treasures untold 
and inexhaustible. When it floated into being, 
the morning stars sung together, and all the sons of 
God shouted for jo}'; and throughout the ages of 
its continued existence, the visible things of His 
creation have made known the invisible things of 
the Creator, even His eternal power and Godhead. 

The universe is God's great Cathedral ; the azure 
dome with its golden stars above, the columns of 
His everlasting hills around, the wonders of by- 
gone generations beneath. Armed with the tele- 
scope we see its aisles stretch along through the 
immensit}' of space till the computation of the dis-^ 
tances makes the mind gidd}'. and yet be\'ond these 
are undiscovered stars and worlds of stars. By the 
aid of the microscope we discover a world beneath 
us, where the creative power of God is seen to write 



god's holy temple. 



267 



His name on the very atom that is unappreciable to 
our mind but as an abstraction. And in the height 
and in the deep, in the greatest and the smallest of 
His works, wherever the eye glances we see the 
traces of a power and a wisdom which is divine. 
And when from the mechanism of the world and 
its architectural structure we rise to behold its dy- 
namic and chemical forces, as we watch the return- 
ing seasons, the wind which bloweth where it list- 
eth, the chemical affinities which in part we can 
trace and note ; we see God at work ! at work in 
the vast, the infinite house of His creation, weaving 
its coat of many colors and many forces and many 
blessings with an unwearied hand and ceaseless ac- 
tivity; supporting the whole in all-embracing laws, 
and guiding it by an ever-present Avill and energy. 
From all we see and do not see, from all we know 
and do not know, from all we have searched and do 
not and cannot search, the constant anthem rises of 
the whole creation to His praise and glory ; the 
diapason of the deep, the thundering echoes of the 
height, dny unto day uttering speech, night unto 
night showing knowledge: in more than pentecostal 
richness of tongues and languages and expressions, 
all His works praise Him and proclaim '* The Lord 
is in His holy temple !" 

Out of the field of His natural laws we rise to the 



268 



SERMONS. 



contemplation of the moral elements alive in His 
temple, and betokening His presence in His con- 
stant, overruling and sustaining govcrinncnt and 
providence. 

Like a vast moving panaroma, the great Architect 
and ]\Iaster has cast forth into existence the grand 
conception of His holy temple, this beauteous cre- 
ation; and UDon the world's canvass He has painted 
the history of its immortal inhabitant, placed there 
to fill the courts of His temple, and learn to wor- 
ship with a living service their ever-present Lord 
and God. For six thousand years the great tableau 
of man's existence and histor\' has been unrolled, 
and Ave cannot say how many ages yet may pass 
before the whole of God's work shall be complete 
in time. But who that traces back his steps, and 
casts his eye along the shifting scenes of this world- 
picture, as in uninterrupted flow they have suc- 
ceeded each other ; and watches their development 
and marks the causes and eftects, as they combine 
at each period and lead us gradually to the scene 
which now stands before the e}'e of the beholder: 
but must see the golden thread of God's Providence 
interwoven with it all, and how all turns on the 
everlasting hinges of His government. Tlie liistory 
of the luorlci proclaims: "the Lord is in His holy 
temple." 



GOD S HOLY TEMPLE. 



269 



The same is true of the hfe of the individual. 
Of all philosophies in the world the shallowest and 
most irrational, most degrading to the mind of man 
that honours itself in feeling after the high and holy 
God and forming an adequate conception of His at- 
tributes, the most puerile of all philosophies is that, 
which delegates to God what is called the general 
affairs and great outlines of the world's history, the 
first impetus in the play of its mental and moral ele- 
ments; but denies His presence in the single events 
of life, denies the power of God and His presiding 
providence in that which forms the daily life and 
every hope of the individual ! 

Beloved, God's providence is like His creation.. 
As the microscope discloses to us more of His crea- 
tive power than the boldest flight along the stars 
that circle round us in unmeasurable orbits, so here, 
more than any where else, we see His ruling hand. 
For here we speak from experience and what our 
eyes have seen and our ears heard. Here in our 
every-day life, in our circumstances, our blessings, 
our trials, we see the presence of God. We are the 
inmates of that world which is God's temple; in 
Him we live and move and have our being. And 
of all the hopeless views and barren theories, his is 
saddest who lives " without God in the world ! " — 
Here is the great lesson which we so constantly 



2/0 



SERMONS. 



forget and lose sight of. The Lord is in His holy 
temple;" but we forget His presence. FiUing the 
whole universe, His mercies are over all His crea- 
tures ; He is about our bed and our path ; but we 
do not see Him, neither are thankful. He alone 
sends and controls the events of our life, but we live 
as if we were independent of Him, and rest in our 
own strength and make our calculations upon our 
own premises ; and leave God out of the question — till 
He comes down upon us with a striking proof that 
His arm is not shortened. In that loss of a crop, 
when God dr6ve the crushing chariot wheels of His 
hurricane across the field, or withheld the early and 
the latter rain from the farmer who left Him out of 
the account ; in that failure which suddenly pros- 
trates our business, which is based only on our own 
calculation; in that revolution which all at once 
changes the issues of public life, and cuts short the 
schemes of the politician, who cares for everything 
more than his God: in that sickness, which unex- 
pectedly invades a family, that had been blessed 
w^th health so long that they looked upon it as their 
prescriptive right; in that vacant seat at the fireside, 
where, in the uninterrupted flow of prosperity, the 
family had forgetten that its blessings were a posi- 
tive gift from God, and that He who was not thanked 
when He gave, would come to demand a blessing 



god's holy temple. 



271 



on His name as He took away : In these and other 
ways the Lord writes the proof of His presence and 
unceasing Providence in the hfe of every one of us. 
If we cannot read His hand-writing in the days of 
prosperity and rejoicing, we must thank Him when 
His chastenings and visitations lead *tis out of our 
godless state; and in every duty, in every trial, in 
the hour of joy or sorrow, to know to our great and 
endless comfort that ''the Lord is in His holy tem- 
ple," *'the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! " 

Witlioiit God ill tliczvorld ; without the sweet con- 
sciousness that we are livmg in His presence and 
under His watchful care; without the strength and 
encouragement for our work, which comes to us 
only when we feel that He is working with us ; 
without that value of every blessing we enjoy, which 
only he can have that sees m it an instance of God's 
love; without His arm to support us in trials ; with- 
out the comfort of going to Him when sorrow casts 
us down and all looks desolate and dark, of going 
to Him for help and consolation, and feel His gen- 
tle hand wipe our tears away; without the joy of 
praising Him for His goodness, and uniting with 
angels and archangels, with all His creatures of 
heaven and earth, in the exultant proclamation 
*'the Lord is in His holy temple ! " Oh, rather let 
me suffer the loss of all than not learn this lesson; 



2/2 



SERMONS. 



rather let the sun be blotted from the universe than 
the world for me to be without God I 

II. ''The Lord is ix His holy temple," His 
CJiurcli ! 

The world, the universe speak to us of tlic Cre- 
ator^ the Chi*rch of CJirist, It is the world of the 
Redeemed, of those who having wandered from 
their home in the Father's love and strayed in 
the ways of sin and fallen under the sentence 'of 
death, are recalled by grace to return to God as 
penitents, trusting themselves to the mediating^ 
power of Christ. 

As we watch the course of history and the de- 
velopment of our race, we find this Church the 
comoanv of the faithful evervwhere, and its destinv, 
preservation, guidance and growth the great idea 
and object underlying all the dealings of God with 
man. Behold, I am with }-ou ahvays/" is but an- 
other form of our text " The Lord is in His holy 
temple." 

Oh, brethren 1 it is a fearful thing to be without God 
in the world, but it is perfectly awful to be zcithout 
God in the Church. Our whole life here is one of 
probation. We are probationers for eternity; this 
whole world is but made for the saints. God has 
established His Church on earth, to train us as can- 
didates for immortality, to prepare us for heaven. 



god's holy temple. 



273 



Eternity is before all. Heaven only for those avIio 
are members of the Church of Redemption, with 
whom God resides as Immanuel. And oh ! to be 
ifi this ChurcJi, in this Cliristianizcd iKjorld, and yet 
ivitJiont God ! To be in this zvorld ziitlioiit Christ f 
To call together His elect and train them amidst 
the temptations of the world and their conflict with 
evil for their heavenly inheritance, the Church has 
been established visibly among men, with appointed 
means and ordinances which were sanctioned as the 
blessed means to uphold and build up the spiritual 
edifice of the Church, and in them z^e see again hozu 
thd Lord is in His holy temple!' 
As He has hallowed the Sabbath day, so He has 
hallowed the courts of His sanctuary. Here, even 
in these walls, here is God ; He is now in His holy 
temple. The promise that " where two or three 
are gathered together, there am I in the midst of 
them," the great pledge " in this house will I 
give peace," are ours Jure and noz^\ Oh ! it is not 
w^ithout meaning or spiritual confirmation that the 
minister dismisses you with " the peace of God Avhich 
passes all understanding;" for here v\^e are led to 
Him who is our peace. How the annals of man- 
kind could bear witness to this fact, and how Avith- 
out these means and their use, religion becomes 
extinct! 



274 



SERMONS. 



Does not your own experience, does not your 
own practice bear the same testimony? Is not this 
house, for many, a house of mercy? And this 
day and these ordinances the very joy and strength 
of many souls? It is very true, beloved, these are 
but as the scaffolding of the true spiritual edifice 
where God dwells. But to us they are of infinite 
importance. God would not have ordained them 
if they were not needed for us ; and wherever they 
are neglected (let history and experience testify) 
the Spirit, too, departs, and God's presence is with- 
drawn. We, jndeed, must Avorship Him in spirit 
and in truth ; but only those worship God spirit- 
ually and truly, who with an humble and believing 
mind confess Him in His own terms, seek the as- 
sistance of every means of grace and rejoice in 
these ''vestiges" of His saving, sanctifying presence. 
No, my brethren ! where the heart is set on God, 
Avhere Christ is the hope of the soul. His way in the 
sanctuary is the very joy of the believer ; and it is 
just as ai'cful to be 'i^dtliout Christ tlie avorld as 
to be z-citJio2it God in the Church ! 

III. "The Lord is in His holy temple!" I 
am coming to my climax. 

From God and His creation we have risen to His 
spiritual temple — the church of Christ; hut the Holy 
of Holies, where God resides most intimately, the 



god's holy temple. 



275 



most sacred temple of the living God, is the hnnia?i 
soid^ tJie soul of the believing, faithful Christian. 

Know ye not, saith the aoostle, that ye are the 
temple of the Hving God ?" 

I know of no truth so sublime, as that we are the 
temples of the Holy Ghost; that God the High and 
Holy one who inhabiteth eternity, also dwells with 
the humble and contrite soul ; that as Christ taber- 
nacled in the flesh, He now tabernacles by His 
spirit in every believer's breast. There is a divinity 
in man on earth, and every converted soul has it; 
but it is not the native grandeur of our souls, and 
the strength of our own goodness and power. It 
is Christ in 7is ! It is the gift of God' s Holy Spint 
which every truly converted soul possesses. Of 
every Christian, but of the Cliristian oidy it can be 
said the Lord is in His holy temple ! " 

Here is just the point. This world is God's 
handiwork; the temple He built Himself in infinite 
space, abounding with the proofs and tokens of His 
power, wisdom, goodness; and even in this world, 
which lieth in evil, He resides as in His temple ; 
His omnipotence and providence uphold and gov- 
ern it, and make the wrath of man to praise Him I 

The Church on earth is the company of all be- 
lievers, and as a visible society it is led on and pre- 
sided over by the Lord our God. He who re- 



2/6 



SERMONS. 



deemed it, dwells in it to euide and bless and sanc- 
tify it, and conduct it safely towards the day of final 
triumph. 

Still all this is more general in its bearing, in the 
aggregate as it were. But religion and Christianity 
are personal matters, matters of each individual, 
matters between the soul and God ! And therefore 
our own hearts must be the temples of God ; the 
spirit of God must dwell in us, or we are none of 
His ! This is more than the Church of the re- 
deemed, it is the CJmrcJi of tJie sons of God, 

Let me then ask you, is He, is He in your hearts? 
Are you not only of the number of those who pro- 
fess the^religion of Jesus and confess His name as 
alone saving ; but, have you received Him in your 
hearts ? Is he the God enthroned there? Can you 
hope that you are a temple of His holy spirit ? Ah 1 
I know, every heart is a temple. But what God 
dwells there ? Is it the Lord or the world ? Is it 
some evil passion or the holy Jesus ? Is it the 
spirit of earth and earthly things, or, is it the spirit 
of Holiness and godly love ? This is a vital ques- 
tion for us all, for every man and woman born into 
this world — for you and for me. All of our re- 
ligion is of no use, unless Christ is ours and we are 
His. All the glories of God's temple and our ac- 
knowledging Him in the world, all the blessings of 



god's holy temple. 



277- 



His church and our joining it, are nothing, and 
worse than nothing, unless our hearts are His and 
there He resides as the Lord our God, our Saviour^ 
our Sanctifier. 

I am sure I am saying what every one can under- 
stand. We do not demand mystical and superna- 
tural proofs and signs. Let all ask themselves, 
what is the bias of my mind; what is the principle 
which rules my thoughts and words and actions; 
what is the object of my life? Is it holiness, or is 
it the acquisition of some earthly good, the passing 
gains of this life? Which do I seek first and most 
anxiously ; what is the will and the law and the 
spirit that rules me? — Self and the world, or God 
and Christ ? This is the test of the Christian, be- 
loved, that our heart be set upon God and godli- 
ness ; that whatsoever we do, we do all to His 
glory; that the goal we run for be holmess, like- 
ness to Christ; that we stand not in our own will, 
but the will of God, and study to live up to our 
prayer " Thy will be done." These are the proofs 
that we are God's, living members of LLs Church; 
that not only our bodies and souls are fashioned by 
Him, and under the power of His sovereign Provi- 
dence; that not only we are sprinkled with the 
blood of Christ for justification so as to escape 
hell : but that we are nezv creatiLves vi Him, spiritu- 
24 



SERMONS. 



ally-minded, growing more and more into His own 
image and living the life of God on earth. TIuis 
zve arc the temples of the Lord^ and thus only our 
foreheads bear the inscription, ''The Lord is in His 
holy temple." — .But oh, the alternative! Witliont 
God /// tJie heart, z'citliout the Holy Ghost /// the 
WORLD, it were better for us had we never been 
born I 

ly. The Lord is in His holy teaiple! Heaz-en^ 
God's tJiTone ! ThatJ better world above, where sin 
is not known and where we shall see even as we 
are seen I 

Ah, my brethren I if we are the temples of God 
here, if Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, if we 
have the unction of His Holy Spirit,, His greater 
temple must be ours too. The Church of Christ, 
the family of God, is but one in heaven and earth. 
It can add but little ; for eternal life is ours now. 
We have commenced it here. Having the Holy 
Spirit of God residing in us. we are already sealed 
as the inheritors of His house abo\'e. The veil of 
flesh and blood may shroud it from our view and 
actual enjoyment. There is a great difference be- 
tween the anticipation of faith and hope, and the 
full blaze of sight and the riches of fruition. But 
it is ours, even now; ours by faith, as really as 
if we beheld it by sight. And we are already in 



god's holy temple. 



279 



possession of its best gifts, the love and communion 
of God. After all, the presence of God is heaven 
must still be of a spiritual nature, just as it is 
now — flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom 
of God." The difference is, that here our spiritual 
sight and faculties are obscured by the associations 
of earth and the remnants of sin. But all these 
hindrances shall be removed, that veil which still 
hangs between us and our entrance into glory shall 
be rent — and tJien ? Ah ! in this thought is opened 
to us the scripture, that death shall be destroyed and 
the grave be swallowed up in victory — and tJie^i ? 
It is more the Lord coming to His own, to those in 
whose heart He already reigns, and whose love is 
His already; coming to them with the last and ever- 
lasting blessing of His love and presence, than our 
coming to Him and entering into new life ! aiid 
thefi ? tlien ! 

You have seen the child awaiting his father? 
they had been separated long; sea and land w^ere 
stretched between them. But after his long absence 
he is announced as returning to abide with them 
and bless them with his constant presence. Weeks 
are counted after weeks, and then days after days, 
and hour after hour. The moment draws nigh. See 
how that child becomes all expectation ; the play- 
things which had engaged him before, are thrown 



^8o 



SERMONS. 



aside ; the face glows in new radiance as he looks 
forward to the joyous moment — his whole soul 
seems to be wrapt in anticipation ! He listens to 
every step ! At last — oh ! notice how he starts ! At 
last, that step is heard. The child knows it, knows 
his own father's tread, knows it instinctively, knows 
it by love ! Ah, that father w^as his already. His 
love was his, and no doubt ever flashed upon his 
mind as if his affection could have been lessened, 
and their reunion cannot make those ties more 
endearing, their bond firmer ! And yet — have you 
never seen such a scene ? How he trembles in mo- 
mentary expectation; how all is forgotten, but his 
coming father; how he looks out as if he had never 
seen him before; how he stands breathless and with 
palpitating heart! Nearer comes the step, and 
nearer: he is already mounting — at length — the 
door opens, and tlie cJiild springs into Ids father s 
arms ! 

Such is the ascent of the believing soul into the 
temple of temples — his Father's arms ! 



THE INXARNATION. 



281 



God who, at sundry times and in diverse mannerSy 
spake in ti?nes past unto the fathers by the prophets, has^ 
in these last days, spoken to us by His So?i, 

Hebrews i. 12. 

It certainly is a blessed, and, I think, upon the 
premises of the world as it is, an all but necessary 
fact, that God should speak in a particular manner 
by positive revelation to a particular people, whom, 
in a fallen and corrupt world, " until the fulness of 
time should come," He constituted the keepers of 
His oracles. But that does not exclude a farther 
and undeniable truth, that God has spoken, not only 
to Israel and the fathers of the covenant, but in di- 
verse manners, though not in the same way as to 
His chosen people, to all m.ankind, in every age 
and condition. 

That the Creator should care for the creature is 
shown, not only in the physical world, but is in- 
volved in our very conception of Him and the re- 
lation existing between the two, the Creator and 
His creation. We would say it is the natural and 
inalienable claim of the creature, the moral creature 
certainly, to a moral, righteous Creator. Do not 
fear that in saying this we are violating our rever- 



282 



SERMONS. 



ence and creature-dependence towards the omnip- 
otent God, the potsherd striving with Him that 
fashioned it/' the child saying to the parent, what 
hast thou brought forth ? " No, we are respecting 
God's own work and creation that came from His 
hand "good and upright," ''made in the image of 
God." In that image (all the more, because lost in 
the fall) we more than trace our intuitions of right 
and wrong to His ozvn cliaracter. The Scriptures 
certainly uphold this view throughout. ''He is 
not a God of the Jews only, but also of the Gen- 
tiles." He Avas in the world but the world knew 
Him not." Every false religion but denied the 
truth ; forgot, degraded it from what it was in the 
first purity of their existence, and is a perversion 
and apostasy " when they knew God they glo- 
rified Him not as God, who changed the truth of 
God into a lie and worshipped the creature more 
than the Creator." 

My brethren, all history proves this, and is the 
record of man's consciousness of his connexion 
with God. The one fact of man's sense of account- 
ability proves it; and shows how everywhere and 
in all times man, this creature of earth, has been 
struggling up, groping, "feeling" his way (is not 
that St. Paul's statement in the Areopagus at Ath- 
ens ?) towards, and aspiring to communion with God ; 



THE INCARNATION. 



283 



and realized, whether in fear or hope, the presence 
of that God, without whom his Hfe rests on noth- 
ing, defeats his search into cause and effect, and has 
no aim but the enjoyment or endurance of the fleet- 
ing moment, tJie life of the brute. 

The idea of God is found everywhere, among all 
men, a higher and controlling Being. Whether 
this thought, or the results of this thought, are 
given in his constitution or by special revelation, 
need not trouble us; it comes to the same thing. 
For that constitution and all its intuitions — the inate 
ideas so much deprecated by philosphers — come 
from Him who created man and (ah ! here again 
comes in the wonderful and unique testimony of 
Scripture) were given him by God breathing into 
his nostrils," as He did to no other creature, and 
then man became a living soul," differing, radi- 
cally differing, from all others, as a living, rational, 
immortal, and accountable being. Or it may be 
traced back to the first and never-forgotten reminis- 
cences of his paradisial days in Eden, when man 
walked with God (hence all the traditions of " a 
golden age ") a consciousness as ineradicable as 
the sense of sin in fallen man. It makes no mate- 
rial difference in the main question. But we cannot 
overlook the remarkable fact that the knowledge, 
the worship and the fear of God — some God — are 



284 



SERMONS. 



universal. No exception to this has ever been 
established.^ 

But more tJian that. Secondly : Everywhere we find 
the sense of sin and the need of atonement and sac- 
rifices, with a view to that. ]\Iore still ; a representa- 
tion either of the God to appease, or the God-like 
powers to fight off the wrath of the offended deity, 
like the Dii Aveminci of antiquity, as most Fet- 
ishes are and modern superstitions. All form a tes- 
timony on the part of man's consciousness, which 
establishes the Apostle's words, both that *' He hath 
made of one 'blood all nations of men," and also 
''that they should seek the Lord," ''feel after'' the 
incarnate God, whom they vainly and rudely and 
superstitiously sought in the elements of nature, in 
the stars of the seasons, or even the wood and stone 
of their Fetishes. 

Let me pass before you the leading types of all 
man's religion. 

I am not one of those who believe that man 

^ So many, sucli disproportionate majorities of so-called primi- 
tive races, as opposed to the very few exceptional cases reported 
by passing, shalloAv, uninformed, and prejudiced travelers, repre- 
sented by them to be without the knowledge of God and religious 
rites, (after all but the results of original religious feeling,) have 
been proved to be worshippers of a God or higher beings, that 
the conclusion is over \\ helming, the induction perfect, as regards- 
the few whose condition may yet be allowed to be unproved. 



THE INXARXATION. 



285 



was evolved from either the ape or the savage. The 
first position seems ahxady passing away, and the 
materiaHstic evolution-theory must meet with the 
fate of *'the vestiges of creation" which years ago 
made weak-kneed Christians tremble. I think their 
day must come ! Science goes against them, must 
go against them. The missing link is missing every 
w^here, the growth of one species into another de- 
nied by nature's proofs, the spiritual apart from the 
natural undeniable. 

As to man's starting as a savage ? It is utterly 
incomprehensible to me how sensible men can still 
uphold anything approaching that view, and follow 
the GTuidance of men like Tylor, Buckle and others. 
We might as well listen to the sentimental twaddle 
of J. J. Rousseau, and worship the savage as the 
perfection of man. Of course we do not claim for 
that first race what we now call the refinements, 
and w^hat are the artificialities of the present day. 
Such have been different in all ages, and even the su- 
perlative luxury of Rome in the dissolute and reck- 
less days of her wretched empire, was very different 
from, and as in many respects far below, so in others 
far ahead of the so-called comforts, and the things 
which from artificial luxuries have almost passed 
into the ^' matter of course " and necessary " things 
of our days. But Savages four thousand five hun- 



286 



SERMONS. 



dred years ago ? when all science confirms history, 
and has proved that no traces of human life are 
found farther back than that! Savages, in that mo- 
ment of time, to have risen into the civilization, 
which built the tower of Babel and the pyramids of 
Egypt, Avhich constructed the canals of the Nile 
and the Euphrates, and stood forth as thoroughly, 
thoroughly organized states, priestly, military, civ- 
illy, commercially, mechanically, agriculturally? 
There was not time for such development, evolution, 
if you please, of the savage. 

Unless the descendents of Adam, made in the 
image of God, though fallen into sin and depravity, 
retained some of the original powers with which 
man was endowed to fit him for the dominion of 
this earth ; unless, as compared with the fallen, and 
since then naturally and ever degenerating races of 
the earth, there had been, in Scripture-language, 
giants in those days," why all history would be 
unintelligible, all advance an impossibility ! Unless 
aided from above or outside, the development of 
man is downward ! reason shows it, the facts of the 
savage world show it. Once let sin and godless- 
ness seize upon the world, and the downward course 
is fearful, till it reaches the bottom in the worst spe- 
cimens of savage life ; the hopeless, unprogressive, 
undeveloping, tin evolutional^ stationmy status of 



THE INCARNATION. 



287 



barbarism, whose rise into a higher hfe of thought 
and aims becomes a kind of resurrection. But all 
history, (historical, actual facts, not hypothesis, not 
preconceived so-called theory,") proves that there 
is no new life, no new thought, no resurrection to a 
higher state, unless by influences from abroad ; by 
races or men of higher endowment ; and if we go 
back to the root, by a revelation from on high I 

Let me lead before you the main types of relig- 
ious life. Even in that state of degeneracy, the idea 
of some higher being or beings is not lost. It always 
prevails. If not the one Holy God, the one ultimate, 
philosophical, truly religious and only cause of all : 
every where we find at least the second causes^ that 
became multiplied according to men's wants, their 
hopes and fears, (the true source of man's many 
lords " and many gods," developed from the origi- 
nal monotheism of mankind,) and which resulted 
in what is now called aniinisvi ; that is, the peopling 
of the world with spirits and ghosts to affect and 
control the life; spirits of the air, spirits and ghosts 
of the departed, spirits of life and of death; the 
sprites of sky, water, fire and earth, the elves of the 
woods and meadows, the gnomes of the mountain 
caves and the mines of the earth, that in all were 
working for the weal or woe of those who dealt 
kindly towards them, or had to conciliate their 



288 



SERMONS. 



enmity. Ah ! the spectre and ghost-religion of the 
savage! it lays hold of ''the savage" in all man- 
kind ! and peoples our childhood with superstition^ 
and foists itself upon men in the fetishes of the 
savage, the hallucinations of astrology, the witch- 
craft of mediaeval times, the table-turnings and the 
monstrous, so-called spiritualisms of the day! It is 
a return in the midst of the broad light of the nine- 
teenth century to the idols of the barbarous mind; 
and only shows how man is w^edded to the inscruta- 
ble, the unintelhgible and the mysterious ; and how,, 
if he will not believe the truth, he believes a lie. 

But let us pass to the intelligent races of man, 
that had not sunk so low, nor lost the vestiges of a 
true God! Whether we take the different fables 
and mythologies of the nations of the earth (which 
all make up the religious history of man's moral 
and intelligent nature) and their exposition in the 
ceremonies and rites of their worship (embodying 
their fears and hopes, their higher and lower stand- 
ard); or, w^hether we examine the speculations of 
the sages and miasters of mankind, from the earliest 
days down to our ow^n times, in their presumed, and 
perhaps often only dialectic and vain boast of the 
progress of thought: the key to the understanding 
of all, the question proposed and the answer sought 
in all, the reaching out of the mind and heart of 



THE IN'CARNATION. 



289 



every man — is just the mutual relation between the 
Creator and the creature, the absolute necessit}' of 
harmony between the two, to make existence nor- 
mal and intelligible. For sinners — a reconciliation 
with God ; for moral, spiritual beings — an identifi- 
cation with Him in will and nature. Humanit}' is 
an unsolved riddle without this harmony assured. 
This is the ''beginning, middle and end of all the 
intellectual as all the moral life of Humanity! 

This being so (and, I apprehend, no intelligent 
hearer, no one who has read history and studied the 
development of mian's mind and heart, no one who 
has risen to higher aspirations than the passing 
things of this world can deny it,) it strikes me that 
the admission of Cliristimiity as its all-sufficient, and 
alone satisfactory solution^ is a foregone conclusion ! 

I come back to the text from which I started. I 
am free to confess, that in my own opinion the idea 
of God itself is given to man, who could not have 
reasoned above his premises; given, as admitted al- 
ready, either in his mental and moral constitution,, 
the work of God's hand; or, as a primitive revela- 
tion, (and I forbear now to show^ how much there is 
in favour of that)"^ and perhaps the memory, linger- 

* The question here touched upon is fundamental. It embraces 
the question of the origin of all human civilization, of which the 
knowledge of God is the beginning. If it owes its origin to the 

25 



290 



SERMONS. 



ing in the heart of paradisial days, when before 
the trial and the fall God and man were at one. 
In this same way I can ascribe the solution of this 
life-question — the reconciliation of man with God, 
and man's return to Him as pardoned and sancti- 
fied — I can ascribe it to nothing but God's own 
mercy and power; and therefore find in all these 
aspirations, feelings and struggles of man, a i^esponse 
to the voice of God that resounds and lias resounded 
in the hearts and vnnds of all ! 

One thing is all but incomprehensible to me — 
that intelligent and upright men, men who have 
studied the history of our race, its outward growth 
and inward development, and who are capable of 

creature, if it is the result of the premises contained in him and 
his constitution, why should it not reach perfection, and in the pro- 
cess of its evolution, go on forever growing? Instead of which 
we find, it ever fails and falls. But when connected in its origin 
with the teaching and the knowledge of God. conveyed to him by 
an external revelation, which in the power of his free agency he 
was capable of accepting and obeying, or to reject and disobey; 
then, whilst the high powers with which man is endowed allow 
him, under favourable circumstances, when once taught, to retain 
it to some extent and carry it on to a certain height; yet, when cut 
off (as is the case in the God-alienated creature,) when cut off 
from the knowledge and love and dependence of God, it must be- 
come mortal like -himself and liable to deterioration and decay^ 
And with the loss of Christianity — the . revealed, religion— barbar- 
ism must be its ultimate bound. 



THE I^XARNATION. 



291 



^seizing upon the points at issue ; who have dived 
into the mysteries of man's inner hfe, and (uncon- 
sciously perhaps) imphed the need of belief in their 
very skepticism as to any proposed philosophical 
system : how they can, for one moment, hesitate to 
accept the revelations of Christianity over all the 
chimerical and fanciful attempts of speculation or 
conceits of other and present ages, and even what 
we so fondly style "the progress of modern thought" 
and *'the highest efforts of the human mind!" 

Given: a perfect and holy God, the almighty infi- 
nite Creator; and the finite imperfect creature, made 
fatally imperfect by sin ! (I have the right to take 
these two premises; without them there is no com- 
mon ground, no reasoning on the question.) How 
can harmony be brought about ? That harmony 
which is the effect, the "feeling" of all? How 
can reconciliation be effected, acceptance procured, 
man raised to the image of God ? 

I stand on my right and the premises of man, 
(God forgive me if I am wrong) but I think I am 
within the limits of reason, nature and Scripture. 

It must be either a descent from God to man, or 
an ascent from man to God ; and we will soon see, 
to bring about the harmony, it must be both, God 
in man and man in God. But before we reach this, 
one thing is necessary, or the attempt is useless. 



292 



SERMONS. 



Por man, free man, God's image, cannot be saved as 
a machine ! The rights, if I may say so, of both par- 
ties^ must be saved. God's liolijtess and sovereignty^ 
and man's personality and moral agency — or both 
would be degraded. 

Now what do we find? We pass the animism of 
-ancient and modern times and delusions? What 
do we find in the best products of human specula- 
tion ? " The little birds sing east and the little birds 
sing west ! " it is the same all through- — the east and 
the west. 

The dreamy east, — take its highest representa- 
tion in Hindoo Brahmanism : it sinks the man and 
his personality in the absolute impersonal deity 
(after all the fleeting phenomena of earth and caste, 
ascetism and transmigration, that is the great con- 
summation and boast, "I am Brahma!"), in the 
'absorption of the creature in the absolute essence; 
which in Bnddhisni, the pet of modern sentimenta- 
lism and Broad-churchism (at best, and with all its 
enlarged liberty of man as man, the most complete 
pessimism as it seems to me), becom^es ''the still-life 
in an unconscious Nirzva^ta 

The polytheistic religions of the west began at 
the opposite end. Instead of divinity coming down 
to men in partial and irrational, and to my mind 
profane emanations (assuming the divinity capable 



THE INCARNATION. 



of losing more and more of the divine perfections) 
in avatars or manifestations, incorporations, exter- 
nal overcomings of man, partial and temporary, they 
begin with man's aspirations, and in seeking God, 
deify Humanity. They magnify man in his strivings 
and conceptions, and raise an earthly and earth-born 
Olympus ; they clothe the gods with whom they 
live (still a communion with God!) in the sins and 
imperfections of man : — God in man's image, not 
man in God's ! 

And the highest philosophies which men have- 
attempted from the days of Pythagoras and Anaxi=^ 
mander and even the disciples of Socrates, fail still 
more in sinking both God and man. . All pantheis- 
tic, giving us at best a ivorld-soiil^ robbing us of the 
personal God; and which in their most daring devel- 
opment of anthropotheism," identify man and God 
in essence^ making God the product of man's con- 
ception and process of reasoning, the evolution of 
human thought, coming into being in that process! 
And though it is true that many of his startled suc- 
cessors have shrunk from following the leadership 
of Hegel, yet as I understand it, he has laid open 
the main-spring and given the key-note of all tran- 
scendentalism. Wearied, disappointed and hope- 
less, the soul returns from its vain search for truth 
and peace in the barren fields of such speculations, 



294 



SERMONS. 



that all reduce themselves to the philosophy of ^*no 
God;" and finds life, hope, light only as it bows at 
the name of the incarnate God. 

[The evolution-theory of these days, the natural 
progress in the survival of the strongest and best, 
an ever-growing perfectibility out of itself ! — Apart 
from its impossibility, according to the facts of life 
and nature — why, at last, man by evolution will reach 
divinity! Is it so? How long will it take? And 
what of those ages before us ; and when shall it at 
last be realized ? And what becomes of present sal- 
vation^ to us and our generation? Millions of years 
hence the imperfect mortal evolving Into divinity I 
I have no fear of this impossible evolution-theory^ 
nor the absurdity of mere matter rising into spirit- 
uality and divine life, except for those who are its 
temporary victims, who seek their promised divinity 
in the low-grounds of earthliness and materialism, 
(the worst of all degrading creeds, akin in philoso- 
phy and religion to a political creed, which would 
take for its main and cardinal principle the senti- 
ment, that ^'honour does not get a breakfast.") 
Humanity will not stand it, it seeks a present sal- 
vation, its goal is immortality and God!] 

Even apart from religion, is there any rest in such 
speculations? Have y oil fonnd your God? Has 
your intellect met with its resting-place ? your heart 



THE INCARNATION. 



295 



been touched, your moral nature been raised? 
More : Is it religion ? God and man in mutual re- 
lation of care and dependence ? And yet, does not 
religion alone meet the cravings of the heart, and 
is the Christian religion less philosophical ? Is it 
not more true than all ? 

A desce7it of the Godhead^ an ascent of man ! 

God coining dozun, but not to abolish personality,, 
nor work salvation by merely appearing on earth 
without assuming and identifying Himself with 
man's nature. 

Mans ascc7it, but on the wrings of faith, and the 
new and divine nature given. 

A true union, God in man and man in God; as 
the Scripture hath it, ''God ma?iifest in the flesh^'' 
''man partaker of the divine iiatiire^ 

I pass Christ Himself No one can answer the 
argument from His life, character, doctrine, work. 

Bui take Christianity to solve these questions. 
As God created man, so God alone can re-create 
him after the fall, and restore him to His commu- 
nion by His own almighty act ! 

Ah ! that act of omniptence ! That act of love,, 
rushing forth from His heart of love to create and 
re-create a world, capable of loving and being loved. 
A love to save, to redeem, to win back ; a love to 
suffer and die for the redemption, the recovery of 



296 



SERMONS. 



the race so nobly born as to be able to choose^ 
capable to err, yet to return, believe and love. A 
God to unite with the cherished work of His hands, 
to give Himself for its redemption, and raise the 
creature in the arms of the Creator's love; give it 
again His own image, make it a partaker of the Di- 
vine nature; and therein find His highest act of 
love, and therein reveal the almighty act of wisdom 
and power which made tJie impossible possible ! Can 
anything else bring satisfaction, hope, peace? — 

My brethren, the two items or facts in this whole 
question are : 'God's holiness and man's sin. The 
discord thus existing, this gulf between the two, is 
not only an undeniable fact of consciousness, but is 
an etermil fact, unless there comes in another fact, 
tJie fact of reconciliation ; and that upon grounds of 
guarding the rights and properties of both, and 
meeting the issues by absolute right and justice. 

Now — there is man's sin — merit only can expiate,, 
can cancel it in God's eternal court of perfect justice; 
merit alone can become its equivalent, its substitute. 
Only God can possess merit, and do more than duty 
requires, duty demands — not of God, but of His 
creatures. Is there any way but that of the Gospel? 
which proclaims, not only the actuality of the atone- 
ment, but that this is God' s, eternal decree and act 
of love ! God so love'd the world that He gave 



THE INXARNATION. 



297 



His only begotten Son;" and out of that recess of 
infinite, unbounded, unfathomable love came forth 
the mission of Oirist : The Son, to die in expiation 
of the creature's guilt that believes in Him, and to 
rise again for our justification ; to reveal and mani- 
fest this invisible God and His unknown love, and 
bind together God and man in new and eternal 
union ! 

The atonement must be a divine act, the sub- 
stitute a divine Saviour; or there is no possibility 
of salvation. Yct^ as substitute^ He vinst be man^ 
very man," or the case is not touched. Otherw^ise 
what hope of salvation and religion, in view of God's 
holiness and justice? in view of man's wants ? Ah! 
is not this justice and holiness and mercy, which all 
humanity claims, just bound up in God's first love? 
and realized in His incainiation? His incarnation 
in man ? Accepting it in faith, i. e.^ utter renuncia- 
tion of our own righteousness, alone can make it 
onrs. 

But let us not forget this : God necessarily re- 
quires a perfect manJiood^ not only that man should 
bear the penalty, but that man should be raised into 
communion and fellowship with God ! God requires 
it; Christ requires it; we require it, reason demands 
it and Christ gave it. 

The divine substitute not only brought the expia- 



298 



SERMONS. 



tion, made the needful sacrifice as man, but as the 
Son of Man in His perfect obedience to God and 
perfect representation of God's image in man, re- 
stored the character of the creature^ and raised it 
to the possibiHty of enjoying God's presence in 
heaven, whose law is God's will and God's will the 
joy of His creatures ! Here is the power of Christy 
to make us the children of God, proclaiming His 
Fatherhood, to educate and elevate us to the life of 
God, purged from our old sins," partakers of 
the nature of God," to a common and eternal broth- 
erhood all ye are brethren," to have fellowship 
with the Father and Son and fellowship one with 
another." 

Thus we have the peifect sacrifice^ the perfect hit- 
inanity ! And in the incarnation^ every mystery and 
doubt and impossibility solved and settled. 

I have finished, I have no appeal to make, but 
only call the witnesses.'^ 

Reason! — it bows in adoration before the truth as 
revealed in Jesus. I will not quote the well-known 
sayings of Rousseau and Napoleon, so constantly 
hawked about but not very relevant. The cory- 
phees of speculative philosophy — Spinoza, Kant, 
Schelling, Hegel — all, however inconsistent in their 



^ Cf. Geike, Life of Christ, Preface and Introduction. 



THE INCARNATION. 



299 



impersonal and pantheistic views, throw their 
crowns at the feet of Christ, and find in Him alone 
(I quote their own words) "the divine wisdom," the 
perfect ideal;" aye, *'the union of the divine and 
human." And the most critical of German Ration- 
alists, (the representative of their better school, De- 
Wette,) in his last utterances professed: ''This only 
I know, that there is salvation in no other name 
than in the name of Jesus Christ the Crucified; and 
that nothing loftier offers itself to humanity, than 
the God-manhood realized in Him and the King- 
dom of God which He founded." 

History! — all along — the testimony to Christ! 
Pointing (to use the words of Jean Paul) to Him, 
who, being the Holiest among the Mighty, the 
Mightest among the Holy, lifted with His pierced 
hands empires off their hinges, and turned the 
stream of centuries out of its channel, and still 
governs the ages. 

Experience ! — it passes unsatisfied the ''cisterns, 
broken cisterns," of man's philosophy ; and to 
quench his undying thirst, leads to the "well of 
living waters," which in the gospel springs up into 
life eternal, " He that drinketh of it shall thirst 
no more." 

Experience which teaches that all else is perish- 
able, every power and every force of earth passing 



300 



SERMONS. 



away ; the empires of its Alexanders, Caesars and 
Napoleons tumbling to pieces, but the religion of 
the Carpenter of Nazareth stands and grows, ''and 
millions this day are ready to die for Him ! " 

Conscience ! impossible to be touched by intel- 
lectual philosophy, and responding only to religion! 
In the ever-living words of St. Paul ''the gospel by 
the manifestation of the truth," (the truth as re- 
vealed by, and in Christ,) "commending itself to 
every man's conscience in the sight of God" — can 
anything else appeal to man's conscience? 

Morality I Ah, "to be a perfect Christian is to be 
a sinless man!" Sinless through the obedience of 
perfect love. What a standard ! What a calling ! 
God's law not only the rule, but the choice, the joy 
and glory of the heart! 

" Love, says one, has no diviner emblem than 
the good shepherd. Beneficence, no ideal so per- 
fect as that "it is more blessed to give than to re- 
reive." Fidelity to duty no loftier standard than 
a life laid down at its command. Self-sacrifice na 
dream so perfect as the record of Christ's death 
upon the cross." 

And w^e may add, co7nmn7iion with God? Na 
meetness but, "blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God." 

Eternal life and immortality ? Assurance only in 



THE INCARNATION. 



301 



the source of life, in Him "who hath the words of 
everlasting life, and brought life and immortality to 
light through His gospel." 

To believe m Jesus ^ the divine Savioiu^ is life 

EVERLASTING. 

To know Him is to have peace with God ! 
Amen and Amen ! 




26 



302 



SERMONS. 



What have I to do a^iy more with idols ? 
Hos. xiv. 8. 

In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a 
dream by night; and God said, ''Ask what I shall 
give thee." And Solomon asked not for himself 
long life or riches or power, but ''an understanding 
heart, to discern between good and bad." And it 
pleased the Lord, so adds the sacred record, that he 
had asked this thing. 

Let that choice be offered to you, brethren, and 
say, as in the sight of God, what y 021 zuoiild ask for. 

It is sad to think how much we live in this world 
and look to its gifts and promises for the gratifica- 
tion of our desires, and place its riches, honours,, 
and pleasures first in our list of treasures. Even 
after the truth has dawned upon us; yes, even after 
our eyes have looked upon Jesus and our hearts 
opened to His love and power, how easily are we 
drawn aside ; how readily driven again, by the al- 
lurements of things visible, the faithlessness of our 
hearts and the strength of old habits, to the beg- 
garly elements of the world; how constantly are 
we forgetting to seek first the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness, satisfied that He should bestow^ 



COMMUNION SERMON. 



all other things upon us, as He deems needful and 
for our good. Take the great Scripture-text, ''zvliere 
your treasiwe is, tJiere shall your heart be also'' 
Brethren, where is yojir heart ? 

God knows that wayward heart, and Christ our 
compassionate High-priest knows all the tempta- 
tions which beset us here ? And therefore we are 
not left alone; but by His Spirit, our Lord and Sa- 
viour is with us, always with us. He uses the ex- 
periences of our life to wean us from its idols, and 
lets us taste the bitter dregs of all its sweetened 
poisons, and suffer from the unquenched thirst, af- 
ter having vainly applied at all its broken cisterns. 
He appeals to us in strains of entreaty or terror, to 
rouse us from our fall and draw us back from sin. 
And He surrounds us with tokens of His presence 
and proofs of His love and power, and with means 
of grace, which call us back to God, and help the 
feeble mind, and guide the faltering professor, and 
fix the heart on Him as its great treasure and train 
it for His favor and His presence. 

This day we stand before Him, and He is nigh 
to hear our prayers. *'Ask what I shall give thee." 
Ah, brethren, is there one among us, one of those 
who are invited to partake of this sacramental feast 
and revive in it the memory of His love, of all He 
did and suffered for us, all He bids us do; that 



304 



SERMONS. 



would be .willing to draw nigh, except with the de- 
sire for Him and His presence and His grace; fo 
an understanding heart and obedient life? 

Whenever we are called to partake of the blessed 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we are called upon 
to dedicate ourselves anew to Him. By all the tokens 
of His love, by the hopes of His atoning death, the 
saving power of His resurrection, and His all-pre- 
vailing intercession, to give ow hearts to Him and 
live to His glory I — It is for this purpose that Christ 
has instituted the Sacrament, and interrupts the 
easy tenor of ^ our Christian life and our every-day 
routine, in which w^e are apt to forget our high and 
holy calling, by the silent appeals, but appeals of 
irresistible love and of overzvhelming solemnity^ which 
come to us, month by month, from this sacred 
table. 

Every time we come up here, we virtually renew 
the baptismal vow, again plead before God the 
merits of Jesus as our only righteousness, again 
promise to renounce sin, the world and the devil, 
and to obey and serve God. 

And, brethren, who that knows his own heart, and 
the many violations of the sacred compact which he 
has been guilty of, will not be moved, in the solemn 
consciousness of his unfitness, to pray God that now 
at last, after so many failings, he may have grace to 



COMMUNION SERMON. 



keep that covenant more faithfully, and love and 
serve his Master better. We look back upon our 
former life and the many inconsistencies of which 
it convicts us, and the wayward desires which have 
interfered with the happiness, that belongs properly 
to the Christian and results only from perfect sub- 
mission to God's will. We remember in sorrow — 
for we have suffered from them — the many delu- 
sions and false attractions with which this world 
abounds, and which but too often have proved a 
snare to us. We stand there once more as babes 
in Christ, as those who come as sinners and flee 
from destruction to Jesus. It is like taking again 
that decided step which every one takes when first 
coming to the Lord, to turn from the world to Him 
who has saved us, to turn from earth to heaven our 
promised home, to turn from everything that binds 
the heart in the service of sin, and say : What have 
I to do any more zuith idols ? " 

What have / to do with idols ? /who have been 
called by Christ, who have been saved by His 
blood, who have been made a member of Christ, a 
child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ? 
/who have been admitted to the sweet intercourse 
with my Master, and the communion with my Lord 
and King; who have felt His pardoning power and 
the constraining influence of His love ? / who 



1 



306 SERMONS. 

have sworn to be His faithful soldier and servant 
unto my life's end ? 

W/ia/- liavc I to do any vioi'e z-citJi idols ? " 
Ah, brethren, as we stand here, let us remem- 
ber that His eye is upon us, the eye of the all-see- 
ing Judge I Let us remember the exhortation : 
to judge ourselves lest we be judged of the Lord," 
and ''so to examine our own consciences, that we 
mav come holv and clean to such a heavenlv feast, 
in the marriage-garment required by God in holy 
Scripture and be received as worthy partakers of 
that holy table?'' I know, Ave have all to labour for 
this, and to renew the resolution henceforth to have 
nothing more to do with idols. \i\ our heart, which 
ought to be a temple of God — alas how apt we are 
to keep a niche filled with some other object of our 
worship ? And as in the days of His flesh the Sa- 
viour drove from the temple all who desecrated it 
by worldly traffic — much more let us pray Him to 
make our heart clean and keep it as an holy tem- 
ple and give us grace to say : 

The dearest idol I have known, 
Whate'er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from Thy throne 
And worship only Thee I 

Come forth, ye idols of my wicked heart, and 
yield your place to its rightful owner I Fall down 



COMMUNION SERMON. 



like Dagon's image at the presence of the Highest, 
and let my Saviour take possession of His blood- 
bought treasure I Ye darling sins that have long 
kept me from Jesus, that have led me captive against 
mv will and caused me to denv the Lord who bouo-ht 
me. TJiis day, by the grace of God, I resolve to leave 
you all for Jesus. " JVhat have I to do any more 
with idols?'' even should they be dear as a right 
hand or a right eye ? 

Ye unlazvfid attaclinients ; ye affections tliat, lazfful 
in themselves, become idolatroiis, because the\' are 
not subordinate to the supreme object of my love: 
loose your hold and set me free! This day, by the 
grace of God, I resolve not to degrade the dearest 
relationships of life by making them sinful, but to 
love father, mother, sister, brother, wife and child 
and country better, by loving them in the Lord. 

Ye earthly pleasures, the smiling, dazzling idol 
with its ten thousand worshippers and its unhal- 
lowed temples all around me, I renounce your pass- 
ing joys, and crown of fading flowers, for the cross 
of Christ, the crown of life ! Mine be the joy in the 
Holy Ghost, mine the pleasures which are at God's 
right hand forever more. " What have I to do any 
more with idols ? 

Thoit rilling demon of the age, thou fondly cher- 
ished idol, mammon, love of money, gloating over 



3o8 



SERMONS. 



the glittering gold and the goods that perish in the 
using and buying souls, immortal souls for pelf : be- 
hold, this day I consecrate myself, my strength, my 
wealth, my all, to God! to be His steward, His 
almoner, His servant — I cannot serve two masters. 
What have I to do any more z^'ith idols ? " 
Fear of vieii, that keeps the young from Christ 
and from secret prayer, that keeps the father from 
worshipping God in his family, that keeps so many 
from confessing Christ; that keeps the best of us 
so often from freely, resolutely doing what is right, 
what God and conscience approve I I have felt 
God's love and spirit now, I will not be afraid of a 
man that shall die, I will no longer fear those who 
only have power over the body, I will fear God and 
keep His commandments. Wliat have I to do any 
viore zvith idols ? " 

Ambition I God forbid that I should glory, save 
in the cross of Christ, my Lord, by whom this world 
is crucified to me and I unto the world. 

Make me little and unknown, 
Loved and prized by Thee alone ! 

Self'righteo2isnesss I From this day I seek not 
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that 
w^hich is through the faith of Christ ; the righteous- 
ness which is of God by faith. This day I will re- 



COMMUNION SERMON. 



joice that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners, of whom I am chief; and thank God that ''to 
whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much ! " 

Brethren, whatever the past may have been, how- 
ever much we may have been enslaved by the power 
of sin, or the allurements of the world, or kept from 
Jesus by the spirit of legality; the time past of our 
life ought to suffice us to have wrought their will. 
Tlie Deliverer lias covie, comes to us to-day and bids 
us no longer to live the rest of our life in the flesh 
to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. What- 
ever obstacles the love, or at least the influence of 
these idols may have thrown in our path, to-day we 
are solemnly called upon to renounce them. To-day 
the tokens of grace and mercy teach us to exclaim: 

*' Thy love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down. 
Now to be Thine, yea Thine alone, 
O Lamb of God, I come I 

This, brethren, is indeed the burden of to-day's 
solemnity. Only when coming in this spirit and with 
this resolution, and with the cry for help that He 
would give us this mind and keep us steadfast in 
this purpose — can we be worthy recipients of these 
holy mysteries. We can never come, because 
we have not sinned, because our faith and good 
works have made us worthy ; but we cannot come 



310 



SERMONS. 



either, whilst willingly remaining the servants of sin 
and the victims of such idols. We must come now 
and ever zt ith the praye7% make its a clean hearty 
and renezv a right sph'it within us /" 

But, is not this too the day and the opportunity 
to create in us this holy desire, and enable 2is to form 
these holy resohitiojis ? Here is gathered before us 
all that can move the heart. The past stands before 
us in the sacramented memorial of all that Christ 
has done for us, and teaches us ''that God so loved 
the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life," and that ''there is no con- 
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." The 
present is fragrant with the dews of heaven, that de- 
scend upon the heart in every ordinance of Christ, 
and teach us, that now exalted to the right hand of 
power, our Saviour has not forsaken us, but still 
carries on the work of our redemption, "continually 
making intercession for us !" TJie future is here 
radiant with its glorious promises in Christ. This 
humble feast is but the type of our full communion 
with Him in heaven. It gives us the assurance of 
our final victory, and lifts the heart in faith to be- 
hold the Saviour coming again in power and great 
glory to call us to the home above, and to the mar- 
riage feast of heaven ! 



COMMUNION SERMON. 



3ir 



Oh, brethren, here is our God — Jesus Christ. 
The same yesterday^ when He died that we might 
live. 

Tlie same to-day , when He liveth to make inter- 
cession for us. 

The same forever, when He shall come again to 
take us into His glory. 

What have we to do any more with idols? 




H U9 79 



